The Best Plan for the Sequester: Just Kill It

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Just in case I’ve never been clear about this, let me sign up with Paul Waldman on how Congress ought to handle the sequester fight:

For the record, there is a simple solution to the problem of the sequester: Congress should pass a law eliminating it. Not replacing it with a bunch of other budget cuts, not engaging in a new game of chicken, not putting it off for a month or two, not having a bunch of proposals and counter-proposals, just cancelling it, period. Then once that’s done, you can start the budget process for real, not because there’s a disaster of Congress’ own making looming in a week, but through the ordinary legislative process. If you’re holding a gun to the American economy’s head, the first thing to do is put down the gun.

Yep. There shouldn’t be any budget cuts this year. We should be spending more. Ditto for next year, probably. The deficit conversation should be entirely about setting goals for long-term deficit reduction. Obviously that’s not trivial, since it’s hard to bind the hand of future Congresses, but it’s not impossible to make serious progress. Changes in formulas for mandatory programs, for example, will stay in place unless they get repealed by both the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That’s not inconceivable, but it’s pretty damn unlikely. Ditto for taxes. Discretionary spending is harder to nail down, but then, discretionary spending really isn’t much of a problem anyway.

Pretty plainly, then, this is what we should do. Even Beltway centrists mostly agree, though they’re loath to come right out and admit it. Unfortunately, precisely because it actually makes sense, it will never happen.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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