Fiscal Cliff: A Historical Parallel?

The US "Fiscal Cliff" (specifically budget sequestration process) -->

People propose things that they think no one wants to make sure something happens (the budget passes) -->

Sounds a lot like The Tariff of Abominations, that famously idiotic move by Southern politician Calhoun in 1828 whereby a Tariff that nearly everyone hated was passed anyway:

"In an elaborate scheme to prevent passage of still higher tariffs, while at the same time appealing to Andrew Jackson’s supporters in the North, John C. Calhoun and other southerners joined them in crafting a tariff bill that would also weigh heavily on materials imported by the New England states. It was believed that President John Quincy Adams’s supporters in New England, the National Republicans, or as they would later be called, Whigs, would uniformly oppose the bill for this reason and that the southern legislators could then withdraw their support, killing the legislation while blaming it on New England . . .

"A substantial minority of New England Congressmen (41%) saw what they believed to be long-term national benefits of an increased tariff, and voted for it; they believed the tariff would strengthen the manufacturing industry nationally.

"The Democratic Party had miscalculated: despite the insertion of import duties by Democrats calculated to be unpalatable to New England industries, most specifically on raw wool imports, essential to the wool textile industry, the New Englanders failed to sink the legislation, and their plan backfired."

A lot of differences, though--an important one being that the negative and unnecessary effects of Congress failing to come to a budget probably won't be backed off from in another four years.