Blame game: Face facts. This is what happens when you try to be tough guys.

Don't be fooled by the latest round of "the sky is falling" calls coming from the White House -- or the speeches from "traumatized" Democratic representatives who are lamenting the damage the proposed sequester is going to cause.

This should be no surprise to anyone -- especially the president. He is the one who created it and warned Congress that it he would absolutely stand his ground and the cuts would take place.

This is yet another example of what happens when you refuse to deal with a problem that has serious repercussions. Eventually, you cannot kick the ball down the road anymore.

Bottom line is that the sequester has tough results -- and some that perhaps we might not want to see. But it is not the result of Republicans refusing to "make the rich pay their fair share."

It is the consequence when leaders do not have the guts to tell voters the truth -- that even if the tax rates on the rich were 90 percent, it would not be enough to repay the debt or to sustain the amount of spending that seems to be the hallmark of the Obama administration.

The growing expense of government -- as witnessed in the job growth in Washington -- is a crutch and a campaign tool and it cannot be sustained. There simply, at some point, will not be enough people to pay the taxes.

It is time to talk spending cuts. It is time to face realities. And it is time for those who are doing the spending to face that fact.

Don't get caught in the snare.

This is the same old argument and one we must, finally, put to an end.

Published in Editorials on February 25, 2013 10:45 AM