You get the feeling they wanted this to happen: President Obama formally ordered the sweeping budget cuts known as the “sequester” into effect late Friday night after a final attempt to find common ground between the two parties failed. The $85 billion in cuts to government spending will hit everything from medicare to the defense budget, and could send the country into a second recession. The cuts go into effect because Obama and Republican leadership couldn’t reach an agreement to stop them: Obama insisted on higher tax revenues, while the GOP refused to accept even slight tax increases. The same old story, this time without a last-second happy ending. -