Is there a good side to the sequester?

'Twas the night before Sequester
and all through the House
not a member was smiling
not even a mouse.

Our hopes were all hung
near the gavels with care
with no hope that Congress
would soon be there...

And so, tomorrow morning will be the dawn of the beginning of the Sequester. That's the automatic cuts to defense and discretionary spending that nobody wants but is powerless to do anything about.

A little background: Back in mid-2011, Congress created a "Super-Committee" of senators and representatives from both parties to come together and develop a budget deal that both sides could agree on. Despite any hopes to the contrary, they didn't. Not so "super."

Instead, they put together this draconian set of cuts called the sequester that would go into effect March 1, 2013 unless Congress figured out a compromise before then. It was so far in the future and the cuts were so drastic that everyone thought there would be no problem and that everyone would be motivated to make something good happen. Well, nothing happened.

So here we are.

The cuts are deep and it will hurt. Nobody is happy and everybody is blaming someone else. But you can't point a finger on this one. The super-committee didn't do their job and wasted three months back in 2011. Then Congress wasted another year or more not doing anything, and all along the President hasn't made anything happen either.

But I think something good will come out of it. Not quite a silver lining, but something good.

Congress is actually being held accountable. They didn't do their job, then didn't do it for almost two years even with a punishment looming. They are having to submit to their own reprimand. In public. Without recourse.

I don't think I, a jaded voter, have ever seen this happen, and it's kind of amazing. While the current moment is bad, I think the repercussion on future bills and needs to make things happen will be equally severe. I think Congress will do something really positive and bipartisan and effective to make up for this debacle. Why? Their jobs could very well depend on it.

Image courtesy of deltaMike via flickr