Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake argue in the Washington Post that the forthcoming across the board budget cuts (also known as the sequester) may be the best way to focus Americans’ minds on a basic contradiction in their thinking: they like the notion of cutting government spending but they balk when asked to identify specific cuts they would prefer. As the cuts take hold and people begin to notice the consequences, perhaps they will start pressing lawmakers for a smarter, less arbitrary method to reduce spending.
Of course, this assumes that the cuts will be sufficient to get voters’ attention. On this point, I’m skeptical. Even though the Obama administration is doing its best to illustrate how the sequester will have real-life consequences, it may not happen quickly enough to register as a noticeable change. We are already accustomed to tolerating flight delays, understaffed government agencies, and underfunded schools. I’m not sure the sequester will be draconian enough to upset the average American’s low expectations of the public sector—expectations that have already declined substantially in recent years.
Well, there is the fact that Northern Virginia is likely to get harder hit by the sequester than the rest of the country. There’s a sense that if that happens, it becomes much more difficult for Washington to ignore it. After all, people they may know personally are being affected. It’s real easy to make cuts to Medicaid or school funding when you’re never confronted with the horrific results of those cuts.
I guess part of it also is how nihilistic the Republicans have become. It’s entirely possible, from how they’ve presented themselves, that literally nothing will bother them, and, just like their other messages, it’s all in how to sell it to the voters so they’ll keep them in office.