Don’t look now, but Republicans are starting to show faint signs of “backbonitis.”  This is a relatively new condition for Republicans where they refuse to be intimidated by the irrational behavior of the liberal left.  The new face of the Republican Party is not RINOs like John McCain, John Boehner or Mitt Romney.  It is strong leaders like Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.  Marco Rubio pointed out; correctly, that sequestration was Obama’s idea and most of those predicted job losses are the results of cuts to the defense budget that were demanded by President Obama.   Rand Paul told Obama to stop lying about the world coming to an end because he finally has to cut spending.

In case you wonder who was responsible for sequestration, read the following excerpt from page 326 of Bob Woodward’s book:  “The Price of Politics:” (Courtesy of Washing Post Fact Checker – Glenn Kessler)

“We have an idea for a trigger,” Lew said.

“What’s the idea,” Reid asked skeptically.

“Sequestration.”

Sequestration, in other words, was Obama’s plan.  Obama believed that the cuts to the Defense budget were so horrible that Republicans would have to cave.  Just think about that.  We have a President who was and is willing to sacrifice national security in order to win a political argument.

But, Obama was wrong.  Republicans, appear to have decided that cutting the defense budget, although painful, is better than letting Obama continue to spend us into bankruptcy.  So now Obama is on another campaign type tour trying to simultaneously blame Republicans for his own plan and to warn that the sky is falling.  He is following the traditional Democratic playbook of cutting the most visible and important things first.  When Democrats run out of money the first thing they cut is funding for schools, fire departments and police.  They always start by cutting the things most likely to cause public outrage.  Unfortunately, that has usually worked for them in the past.

But, this time the economy has been bad for too long and all of us have watched state and local government actually cut spending.  Miraculously, when elected officials had no other option, they found ways to cut spending yet our schools are still open, fires are still being fought and police are still on the job.

Obama apparently believes that the first cuts must be to TSA agents and Air Traffic controllers.  This is designed to cause a major airline traffic jam that will hopefully produce the necessary public outrage.  He can’t cut schools, fire departments and police, because the federal government doesn’t do any of that.

I don’t think he was prepared for Rand Paul.  Senator Paul pointed out that the amount of money being cut was about $42 billion, and while that was a lot of money, it was a tiny percentage of the federal budget.  In other words, he called Obama’s bluff.

Sequestration is set to start on March 1.  The Republicans still have time to return to the jaundice of the spine era led by the usual suspects, but maybe, just maybe, “ backbonitis” will spread, even among RINOs previously vaccinated against the slightest display of courage.  Who knows?  Could this really spread?  Even Lindsay Graham is showing signs of growing a spine.  With wonders never cease?

TDM