Immediately after the meeting between the President and Congressional leaders, House Speaker and spray tan sufferer John "Mr. Tangerine Man*" Boehner said that any consideration of revenues to resolve the sequestration deadlock was off the table. This despite the fact that the sequestration deal struck back in 2011 included $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, without raising taxes or closing tax loopholes. The President campaigned in 2012 on a "balanced approach" of spending cuts and revenues to ease the debt problem, and he won handily. Public opinion polls show the public wants a balanced approach of the kind proposed by the President.
What we're seeing is that anti-government teahadists have seized control of the Rethuglican apparatus so totally that there's not one Rethug Congressman that will go against them, even when it means layoffs in his/her own district, or public scorn.
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*credit Jon Stewart