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Related: About this forumGOP Eager For The Sequester To Go Into Effect So They Can Blame Obama For Its Devastating Consequenc
GOP Eager For The Sequester To Go Into Effect So They Can Blame Obama For Its Devastating Consequences
By Igor Volsky posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Feb 17, 2013 at 1:14 pm
With the sequester deadline looming just two weeks away, Republicans have adopted the public posture of cheerleading for the anticipated spending reductions to social programs, while preparing to blame President Obama for their devastating impact on middle class Americans and national security.
Republicans have yet to offer a proposal that would offset the cuts in the 113th Congress and have categorically rejected the Senates balanced approach of higher revenues and spending cuts. Instead theyre sitting on their hands until the March 1 deadline, informing Obama that they will not act to head off the automatic reductions. Let me be very clear, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) told CNNs Candy Crowley on Sunday. These spending cuts are going to go through on March 1st
.The Republican Party is not in any way going to trade spending cuts for a tax increase.
Pressed by Crowley on the consequences of the across-the-board cuts, Barrasso initially dismissed their impact before blaming Obama for any deleterious effects. I believe the president has a lot of authority that he can decide how this works, and, yeah, he can make it very uncomfortable, which i think would be a mistake on the part of the president, but when you take a look at the total dollars there are better ways to do this, but the cuts are going to occur, he said.
Federal spending is already scheduled to reach historic lows as a result of the Budget Control Act, which placed caps on spending as part of the deal to raise the debt ceiling in the summer of 2011. Non-defense spending is currently 14 percent lower than it has been at any time in the last half-century, and will drop further if the sequester goes into effect, impacting food safety, education, law enforcement, and safety net programs, according to estimates from Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee.
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http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/17/1604821/gop-eager-for-the-sequester-to-go-into-effect-so-they-can-blame-obama-for-its-devastating-consequences/
zbdent
(35,392 posts)it was all Obama's idea ...
former9thward
(32,077 posts)It was proposed by the White House. It received bi-partisan support, passed by congress and was signed by President Obama.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-fanciful-claim-that-congress-proposed-the-sequester/2012/10/25/8651dc6a-1eed-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_blog.html
randr
(12,414 posts)zbdent
(35,392 posts)you know ... fighting over table scraps.
Trajan
(19,089 posts)They have been blaming the Do Nothing GOP House over President Obama by about 3 to 1 since he took office ...
The machinations of the House Leadership have come to little benefit for five years now - Why on earth do you think it's going to work now?
summerschild
(725 posts)As usual, the GOP screams nonstop from the rooftops day after day, but I've not heard very much from the Democrats.
The results of Sequester are potentially VERY damaging. Obama (and all Democrats) can't afford to have this hung around their necks. And the poor, working poor, and middle class SURE can't afford any more economic reverses right now!
I hope I'm missing something, but I can't see anyone stepping up to stop it now.
cliffordu
(30,994 posts)And thanks for your concern.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Since Boehner thinks any bill he lets out for votes are bills which the dead in the water TP members will vote for and therefore it will be a Nicole holding up a $20 bill
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,437 posts)and remember that something can't become law without Congress passing it first and, last I checked, the Republicans in the House, including its leadership, all voted for it, so they are all at least equally culpable and if they didn't like the idea that Lew ultimately proposed, they could've rejected it and left it out.
I have yet to hear somebody in the corporate media (though I admittedly don't watch much so maybe I'm wrong) mention that we wouldn't even be here if the Republicans had insisted on holding the debt ceiling hostage in order to extract massive spending cuts in the first place.
They are clearly banking on winning the resulting blame game. Hope it backfires horribly on them.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)daybranch
(1,309 posts)to demonstrate a truth. The truth is less government spending and less tax revenue does not create jobs. The democrats should shout out that truth loud and clear. After the immediate impact of the sequester on employment. republicans will have to acknowledge the lies they have sold to the American people year after year. Obama has acted for 4 years as a centrist trying to appeal to those believing the republican lies while trying to mitigate the effects of the economic policies pursued by the House of Representatives for thre benefit of the very rich and corporations. Lets let the misery come, so we can turn the day around. The American economy with the help of the President is fighting off the death of a thousand cuts while struggling forward. The sequester will be the wake up call to the people which puts the end to the lie for a long long time. Let it come.
Zorro
(15,749 posts)and to blame him for not doing their jobs.
This is a new Civil War -- once again initiated by reactionary assholes -- and the country won't make progress until the Republican Party is removed from any position where they can obstruct sound public policy.
Hopefully California has and will show the way to move forward.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)Seems the focus ought to be on how to stop it from happenning in the first place... idiots.
Kablooie
(18,641 posts)And this result will be a blanket blaming of everyone so no one gains.
You can blame who came up with the idea.
You can blame who approved the idea.
You can blame who voted against a bill to prevent the sequester, no matter how poorly the bill was crafted.
You can lie and say Obama could have stopped this.
People who are informed will realize the GOP is behind it all but unfortunately that will be a tiny proportion of the public.
The uninformed will probably just assume all of government is to blame and lose interest except to bitch about how awful our government has become.
The big question is how it will affect the 2014 elections.