Sequestration Is Austerity, but Not Enough for Simpson and Bowles

That's not Simpson-Bowles, which Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman dismisses as "terrible" economics. That's responsible policy that avoids the "brutal cuts" of sequestration and the even more brutal cuts of full-fledged austerity.

"Almost $2 trillion has been cut over the past two years from teachers, firefighters, police officers, loans for college students, and infrastructure investments," the congressman says of the warped federal budget priorities proposed by austerity advocates. "The American people shouldn't continue to pay the price for massive tax breaks for millionaires and billions of dollars in subsidies to oil companies."

Meanwhile, Greg Kaufmann writes, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF, languishes.