In recent remarks that were stunning and profound, Pope Francis harshly criticized what he called "the cult of money" and condemned what he called the "dictatorship" of economies that are socially unjust and morally unfair.

These remarks, reported in The Daily Telegraph and highlighted on the Drudge Report (but not in major American media) suggest a papacy with the potential to transform the global economic and financial debate.

Most recent popes, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, raised the same issues that Francis dramatized this week. What makes the Holy Father different today is that he views economic and social injustice as a defining, and possibly THE defining, theme of is papacy.

As stories spread about airline passengers waiting extra hours because of furloughs imposed by the sequester, and as monthly job reports begin to show the jobs-destroying impact of the sequester increasing, it is time to cancel the sequester.

Recently, residents in all 50 states have registered secession requests from the federal government. Sixteen states are studying the creation of their own currencies. States have taken their own initiatives on gun control, abortion, the National Defense Authorization Act and other issues. Lakota Indians in The Dakotas have declared their own republic and so have a band of Vermonters. And Texas wants its gold back from the Fed. What happened? 

Republicans need to focus their fire on spending, spending and spending. President Obama is vulnerable and exposed and can be taken down over this issue. His recent drop in polling can be directly attributed to his spirited opposition to the sequester cuts.
 
Ever since Obama succeeded in raising taxes, he has been left naked and unprotected on his opposition to spending cuts. No longer can he deflect proposals to curb the massive federal spending and debt by saying that we should first try to raise taxes on the rich. Now that he has had his way, he’s lost his cover.