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Republicans, it is clear, are conflicted on the "sequester." How did they come to embrace it? Here are four reasons.
Forget the chummy moments with House Speaker John Boehner (l.) at Rep. Nick Rahall's mock swearing in ceremony in January. Now Republicans are using the sequester to try to make the Democrat ex-Congressman Rahall. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
3. Hello, 2014
If you’re a Republican and would love to make some House Democrat an ex-lawmaker, the sequester makes a convenient sledgehammer.
“Nick Rahall is showing West Virginia voters his true colors by refusing to offer up any reasonable solutions to President Obama’s sequester,” reads a typical release from the National Republican Campaign Committee, in this case hitting West Virginia’s long-standing Democratic House member.
Of course, House Democrats have offered their alternative – one that includes cuts and tax increases – several times in the committee that governs which amendments can make it to the House floor but saw their replacement blocked by Republicans each time.
But why should that stop Republicans – and Democrats, too, who have also used the sequester to tar vulnerable Republicans?
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