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In a recent piece titled “Sequester: Congress screws Up,” Joe Timmerman does an admirable (although quite easy) job of explaining why the sequester is a bad idea. However, his claim it is a “congressionally-manufactured crisis” is not accurate. Bob Woodward of the Washington Post has argued the sequester was an idea that originated in the White House. Speaker John Boehner, in a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, claims President Barack Obama insisted on including it in the debt ceiling deal. The sequester is an idea created by the Obama Administration and approved by Congress. The crisis was manufactured by both Obama and Congress.
James Mashal (mashal@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in economics.
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