“Repeal the Sequester” gains steam. Labor’s on board.
by digby
Greg Sargent reports that the “repeal the sequester” movement is gaining some steam on the left. Finally:
With Washington mired deep in the manufactured crisis known as sequestration, one option for resolving the crisis is getting almost no attention: Simply repealing the sequester.
That may now change. The AFL-CIO is coming out today for a repeal of the sequester. The labor federation will press the case in the days ahead that the sequester perpetuates destructive government-by-crisis, and that more austerity — replacing the sequester with other spending cuts — is exactly what the country doesn’t need at a time of mass unemployment and lackluster growth.
“We need to repeal the sequester,” Damon Silvers, the policy director of the AFL-CIO, told me in an interview this morning. “It’s bad economic policy, and it feeds a dynamic that encourages hostage taking. We are calling on elected officials not to play this game of substituting one bad thing for another bad thing. We’re insisting that our elected officials not buy into this inside Washington game of manufactured crises.”
Read the whole post. The interview with Silvers is a breath of fresh air and Greg’s conclusions are solid. The left, whatever it is, is a little bit slow on the uptake here, but it’s finally come to understand that if they don’t take a position against these cuts, the Obama administration’s “offer” to cut vital programs and otherwise degrade the Democratic party’s slim hold on its principles will be the leftward pole of any negotiation. Hopefully, with labor on board the Dems in congress will feel they have the backing they need to stand up to the centrists if, for some reason, the Republicans come to their senses and realize the administration is not only offering up even more in cuts, but they’re offering to politically cut their throats in the bargain. It’s not a good idea to just assume they’ll stay as dumb as they have been.
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