Both the White House and Congress, Democrats and Republicans, signed off on the agreement leading to the sequester.
Here’s the background: In the summer of 2011, Obama and Congress were in a high-stakes stand-off over the debt limit. House Republicans insisted on spending cuts before increasing the debt limit. This was a notable change from the past, when members of Congress from both parties would pass debt ceiling increases with relatively little fuss.
Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner tried unsuccessfully to reach a "grand bargain" to put the federal budget on more stable footing. When that failed, they arrived at the much less ambitious Budget Control Act of 2011.
That law included about $1.2 trillion in future budget cuts, but it also directed Congress to find another $1.2 trillion via a bipartisan "supercommittee." As further incentive, the law had a threat: If a supercommittee couldn’t agree on a package, or if Congress voted down the supercomittee proposal, a sequester would automatically go into effect, putting in place nearly across-the-board budget cuts, with half coming from defense.
Both Obama and Boehner supported the plan and urged Congress to pass it, which it did, with bipartisan majorities. The supercommittee deadlocked, though, so it never proposed new cuts. Hence the sequester.
