puzzling, underlying position, the policy doesn t make a lot of sense given their budget goals. as i understand it, republicans have five basic goals, number one, they say is cut the deficit. number two, cut entitlement spending. number three, protect defense spending and possibly even increase it. four, make the tax code simple by cleaning out deductions and loopholes. and five, five of course is always lower tax rates. now, the white house is able to cut a deal with republicans that accomplish one, two, three, four, it wouldn t lower tax rates but it will do all the other things. republicans won t entertain that deal. they say no, no, we prefer the sequester instead of one, two, three, and four. they get much less than a larger deal, they won t touch entitlement spending really at all. they will see defense spending go through an incredibly big cut. rather than striking a deal with
have five basic goals, number one, they say is cut the deficit. number two, cut entitlement spending. number three, protect defense spending and possibly even increase it. four, make the tax code simple by cleaning out deductions and loopholes. and five, five of course is always lower tax rates. now, the white house is able to cut a deal with republicans that accomplish one, two, three, four, it wouldn t lower tax rates but it will do all the other things. republicans won t entertain that deal. they say no, no, we prefer the sequester instead of one, two, three, and four. they get much less than a larger deal, they won t touch entitlement spending really at all. they will see defense spending go through an incredibly big cut. rather than striking a deal with the white house and accomplish four of their five, they re accomplishing part of one, one,