Can Blame Be Assigned For The Sequestration Mess?

It was a really terrible idea when it passed on August 1, 2011 but it was a big bipartisan vote that passed it, 269-161. It was a GOP bill with an equal number of Democrats-- mostly bad ones-- voting for it and voting against it. 174 Republicans voted YES and 66 Republicans voted NO. 95 Democrats voted YES and 95 Democrats voted NO. You can go through the whole list at the link just above and find out what your congressmember did. But here's how the Conservative Consensus works Inside  the Beltway and why corporate interests almost always win out over voters' interests.

I'm only going to list Members of Congress who we regularly mention here at DWT. First a list of some of the irresponsible idiots who voted for sequestration. First, 20 Republicans:

Charlie Bass (R-NH)
Rick Berg (R-ND)
John Boehner (R-OH)
Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)
Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm (R-NY)
Frank Guinta (R-NH)
Darrell Issa (R-CA)
Mike Kelly (R-PA)
Dan Lungren (R-CA)
Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
Buck McKeon (R-CA)
David McKinley (R-WV)
Joe Pitts (R-PA)
Tom Reed (R-NY)
David Rivera (R-FL)
Ed Royce (R-CA)
Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Allen West (R-FL)

And next, 20 Democratic Party conspirators to this catastrophe, villains we talk about here all the time:

John Barrow (Blue Dog/New Dem-GA)
Shelley Berkley (New Dem-NV)
Ben Chandler (Blue Dog/New Dem-KY)
Jim Cooper (Blue Dog/New Dem-TN)
Mark Critz (D-PA)
Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)
Tim Holden (Blue Dog-PA)
Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
Steve Israel ("ex"-Blue Dog-NY)
Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)
Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA)
Lipinski, Jr. (proto-Blue Dog-IL)
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Loretta Sanchez (Blue Dog-CA)
Adam Schiff (Blue Dog-CA)
Allyson Schwartz (New Dem-PA)
Heath Shuler  (Blue Dog-K Street)
Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

So who voted against this crap? Who was smart enough to not go along with what Ezra Klein calls "the big dumb spending cuts?" Almost every member of the Progressive Caucus voted NO and many of the Tea Party and libertarian Republicans. Here are some whose names you'll probably recognize if you read DWT much:

Justin Amash (R-MI)
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Xavier Becerra (D-CA)
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)
Judy Chu (D-CA)
John Conyers (D-MI)
Donna Edwards (D-MD)
Keith Ellison (D-MN)
Barney Frank (D-MA)
Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
Walter Jones (R-NC)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
John Lewis (D-GA)
Jerry Nadler (D-NY)
Ron Paul (R-TX)
Betty Sutton (D-OH)
John Tierney (D-MA)
Henry Waxman (D-CA)

Should everyone who voted for sequestration be defeated? Yeah, pretty much-- or at the very least, it should be held against them in your who-to-vote-for calculus.