Budget Cuts Put Republican Credo to the Test

Sequestration is by no means a welcome event, but it may serve at least one useful purpose: testing Republicans' theory that cutting government spending will jump-start economic growth.

Republicans have long insisted that Washington's "spending problem" is what stands in the way of a more robust economy and that winnowing outlays will open the economic spigot. Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican and the Joint Economic Committee chairman, wrote recently: "Time and time again, economic studies have shown that countries that reduce their government deficits through spending cuts -- rather than tax increases -- can boost economic growth and job creation even in the short term."