White House Calm Ahead of Sequester

President Obama “is just seven days away from the first significant test of his second term as deep spending cuts loom, yet inside the White House a clear sense of confidence stands in contrast to the air of crisis that surrounded previous fiscal showdowns with Republicans,” the New York Times reports.

“The confrontation holds peril for both the president and Republicans. But for now, Mr. Obama believes he is acting from a greater position of strength, advisers say, pointing to several recent polls that show he holds an upper hand in the budget debate. Yet his standing would be at risk if the so-called sequester caused economic growth to collapse.”

Byron York: “There’s no doubt President Obama is using the so-called Washington Monument maneuver
in the fight with Republicans over sequestration budget cuts. It’s a
time-honored tactic of bureaucratic warfare: When faced with cuts, pick
the best-known and most revered symbol of government and threaten to
shut it down.”