Why Congress Is Cool With Sequester: Its Salaries Are Safe

We shouldn't be too worried about the sequester—after all, Congress doesn't exactly seem to be recoiling at the thought. And Roger Simon has a theory on why: Lawmakers' own salaries aren't getting cut, he explains at Politico. Sure, their staffers are facing furloughs that amount to a 20% pay decrease, but members of Congress will keep collecting six-figure salaries. Of course our lawmakers "might have to figure out how to put those plastic coffee pods in the machines themselves, but these people are not fools," he writes. "They will order out. If they can figure out how to work the telephones."

In fact, House Republicans are positively excited about the sequester, writes Dana Milbank in the Washington Post, noting their agenda yesterday consisted only of renaming a California NASA research center. They're "pursuing a considered strategy of deliberate idleness," after finally realizing that doing nothing means they get "a 2.5% cut in all federal spending without coughing up a single dollar in tax increases. They have learned to stop worrying and love the sequester." Click for Milbank's full piece; Simon's humorous take is here. (More sequester stories.)