The all-pain, no-gain 'sequester'

At a forum held by the Univision broadcasting network in September, President Obama said the most important lesson he'd learned in his first term was that "you can't change Washington from the inside; you can only change it from the outside." That helps explain why he has issued a barrage of public statements and made a slew of appearances in the past week aimed at persuading congressional Republicans to cancel looming across-the-board cuts in federal spending, rather than meeting with congressional leaders to hammer out a deal.

February 28, 2013