You might have been wondering why Republicans were willing to let the sequester go through. After all, they were sure to get blamed (they always do) if and when something went wrong — and what is more, the cuts would do nothing to address the real problem — the need for entitlement reform.
Betting against the Republicans has been smart money of late. But in this case, Republicans might have actually had a long term plan that involved a second act — something more than just showing everyone they are “tough.”
After the White House canceled White House tours (a move many saw as petty and pointless), a sixth-grade class from Iowa posted this video on Facebook. It’s a small thing, of course, but Obama isn’t used to being the villain or losing the moral high ground.
The point isn’t to win a short-term PR battle against the White House (as fun as that might be), but rather, to force Obama and the Democrats to decide that making long-term changes to entitlements would actually be less painful for them than making immediate cuts to discretionary spending.
After all, telling a sixth-grader that he’s going to have to wait an extra year to begin collecting social security in sixty years might be easier than telling him he can’t visit the White House this summer.
It’s too early to tell, but this could be the first step on the long journey of finally reforming entitlements.
So maybe the Republicans were shrewder than we thought… Or maybe the tide is just starting to turn?