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Subscribe to RSSThe automatic spending cuts, just days away, would cut $85 billion a year, having an impact on federal food inspectors, TSA officers, Department of Defense and civilian workers. NBC's John Yang reports.
President Barack Obama used his bully pulpit Tuesday to warn of calamitous consequences for the U.S. economy should the automatic spending cuts known as the “sequester” go into effect next Friday.
The president warned that the automatic cuts, totaling about $85 billion over the course of this year, would prompt job losses, weakened national security and canceled government services – among other consequences.
“So these cuts are not smart, they are not fair, they will hurt our economy, they will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls,” Obama said in a statement at the White House. “This is not an abstraction; people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again.”
The speech featured no new, concrete proposal from the president detailing how he would prefer for Congress to replace the sequester.
NBC's Chuck Todd says it may feel as though the sky is falling (once more) but it's likely the spending cuts will go through March 1, the government will come up with a compromise deal, and they'll punt something else down the road.
Democrats in Congress released a plan last week that called for $55 billion in new revenues from closing tax loopholes and deductions, and additional cuts by $27.5 billion to each the defense and discretionary spending budgets over the course of the next decade.
Obama’s speech was otherwise spent reiterating points he’s made for the better part of the last two months. He said that any sequester replacement should be “balanced” – shorthand for a combination of new tax revenue and spending cuts – and Obama urged lawmakers to approve a shorter-term replacement for the automatic cuts if they couldn’t reach consensus on a broader package by the end-of-February deadline.
Rather, the president, who was flanked by first-responders whose jobs Obama said would be threatened by the sequester, was making use of political optics and the presidential bully pulpit to pressure Congress to act.
Still, the urgency appeared to have little effect on Republicans, who dismissed the president’s remarks as unserious about reaching a solution.
"Once again, the president offered no credible plan that can pass Congress – only more calls for higher taxes," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement.
President Barack Obama voices harsh words toward Republican lawmakers Tuesday while speaking about looming budget cuts.
“Today's event at the White House proves once again that more than three months after the November election, President Obama still prefers campaign events to common sense, bipartisan action,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.
Indeed, many Republicans have treated the sequester as a fait accompli; Congress is out of town this week, and lawmakers would only have a handful of days next week to act upon the sequester. Some Republicans have also argued that even if the sequester is replaced, its $85 billion in cuts should set a baseline for offsetting cuts in other areas of the budget.
“I have to say, though, that so far, at least, the ideas that the Republicans have proposed asks nothing of the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations,” Obama said of the GOP proposal. “So the burden is all on first-responders or seniors or middle-class families. They doubled down, in fact, on the harsh, harmful cuts that I've outlined.”
The president added, as if to drive home the point: “Well, that's not balanced. That would be like Democrats saying we have to close our deficits without any spending cuts whatsoever. It's all taxes. That's not the position Democrats have taken, that's certainly not the position I've taken.”
This story was originally published on Tue Feb 19, 2013 11:04 AM EST
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There is a handful of Republicans who should be arrested and tried for sedition. That would include McCain, Graham, Cruz, Rand Paul, and the female who is always standing behind them at the mic. That is the short list.
You sound like a Facist Lilarose.
Any relation to Mussolini?
Sad to see that over half the US population have their heads firmly placed where the sun don't shine. When will this President propose "REAL" spending cuts to go with all his increased revenue items? If you folks don't think Obama raised taxes on the middle class with ObamaCare, or allowing the 2% income tax reduction to expire must not be paying taxes in the first place....Oh that's right I am on MSNBC where all the welfare recipients hang out.
Entitlements didnt cause the economic collapse my man.
Wake up
Yeah, that's what happens when they LOSE their jobs from failed republican economics
So Obama is the one who came up with this sequestration stupidity. Then he promises no tax hike on the middle class. Then he gets a tax hike on the "rich". So far he has offered NOTHING to deal with the huge cuts that HE pushed. Being middle class, I have seen my taxes go up under Obama. (So he lied as always). He has his tax hikes on the rich. Now it is time to actually CUT spending. He can't. He doesn't know how. He is just wanting the government to control every aspect of our lives. He has not gotten a budget to congress on time at any point so far.
This whole budget crisis is Obama's fault and it is going to be the downfall of the Democrats. They better start talking cuts in taxes for the middle class or there won't be any Dems left after the midterm. Oh, wait. We now know the whole thing is rigged which is how Obama won. All good Dems are voting multiple times because it is the right thing to do. :/
Obama is going to be impeached. If not for Benghazi then for the drones. He is worthless as a President. He has no clue how to govern which is why he is running around the country "community organizing".
Say goodbye to the Democratic party if they don't fix this by cutting spending real quick.
So you don't really know what this is about do you?
hahhahahahha
Typical right wing clueless idiot.
The GOP is freaking out on the cuts, most of which will come from defense.
Fox news must love having an audience so devoid of intelligence
Common U - Man, how does it feel to be the smartest guy in the room. You should run for President, you're so f.....g smart I'm sure you can fix what Barry can't!
Poor Poor Federal Employees. They may have to learn what it's like out here in the real world.
Hmmm... So was the signing of the Budget Control Act about the debt ceiling, kicking the can down the road, or politics as usual? There had to be some reason to sign what was a good idea at the time.
It was...never was presented as anything else. Ah...how quickly we forget. It was to force more realistic compromises as a result of negotiations, by agreeing to automatic cuts undesirable to both sides.
How's that working for us? So far, no appreciable cuts and more taxes.
Tough to negotiate with a House of Representatives that isn't in session. There are a few things that could be agreed to by the President and Republicans in the Senate...cost-of-living adjustments, corporate tax rates, etc.
The basic problem is that the House Republicans are divided between those willing to compromise to arrive a joint solutions and those who aren't.
The trend of the moment is toward a smaller, more "pure" ideological Party. A semi-permenant role as "back benchers." Never enough votes to carry their own proposals, but just enough votes to block anything else.
Sell crazy somewhere else you punk-azz b!tch
The treasonous right wing confederate Republican-Tea Party secessionists...
...are so transparent in their intent to destroy the US economy...
...that it begs the question...
...When are the American patriots, who want a progressive, inclusive, diverse, Union...
...with an economy that jettisons double standards and racist, inequitable, classist practices...
...going to march on the Republican traitors' offices in D.C....
...and their homes, wherever they may be...
...to express our displeasure, repugnance, and disgust, with these treasonous sobs?
We need to neutralize the right wing retards once and for all...
Their oil companies are raising gas prices unnecessarily, they're withholding legislation that would get people back to work, and prime the pump of economic recovery!
...these treasonous skanks would rather break America, than let President Obama succeed in getting the country on the track it needs to realize economic revitalization...
I pray we get a new policy that targets those "domestic enemies" alluded to in the Constitution...
..Joan Boner, Mishap McConnel, Scum Vannity, Pus Limphog, L'il Dick, Karla Rolled, Gwen Becka, and all the other traitors won't relinquish their death grip...
....So, it's up to us "to pry their cold, dead hands" from America's collective throats...
Good Lord man, you need help - seriously.
You're right Porker D(head)
I need help ridding this country of backwards thinking, house slaves, who want to kill unions, hurt old and defenseless poor people, make workers suffer so their corporate masters can profit...
...and did I mention destroy the planet so that a few disgustingly greedy cracka traitors can buy another corporate jet, or yacht?
...I need people to serious about getting closure to the war of the states...
...before the racist, confederate, red state secessionist Obama-hating traitors (that'd be you)...
...bring us all down...
My reply above was meant for your punk-azz
27.5 billion over ten years. Let's not dig too deep Dems.
Yawn... Thank Congress for any increases in the deficit. Article 1 - Section 8, who is responsible for spending, and who raised the debt ceiling 19 times in the bush years.
Get a clue....or stop posting because it is too easy to blow holes in your factless claims.
Liberals sure don't like to be told or proved wrong, but yet it is sooo easy to do.
They just whine and point fingers. Like blaming Bush, Republicans, unicorns and the weather.
Yet Obama is going on his FIFTH year of playing the role of Ray Charles.
GO FOR IT. Show me in the United States Constitution who is responsible for collecting and spending revenue.
Remember... 11 TRILLION FROM BUSH is not blame, it's FACT. We will stop referencing BUSH, when we are done recovering from his inept presidency and the pathetic legacy he left for us to fix.
P.S. Note to self.... if by some miracle, a republican gets in the WH in 2016. Obama cannot be blamed for anything, he will no longer be president ;-)
No, we know it's President Obama. We also know that BUSH left us a legacy of debt that Obama and every other president has to CLEAN UP.
LOL the only joke here is you... but amusing. Even republicans I work with, see your comments as a joke.
grababrewski
No kidding. Can you tell I dropped 10 lbs? I'm down to 5,000,000 lbs.
The only reason the GOP wants the sequester to go through is that they think they can restore the money to the defense department later. They plan to have everything cut now, try to blame the president for the harm to the economy (the results of their manufactured crisis), and then restore the money to their buddies in the defense industry. The GOP doesn't care about the debt, they just want to cut government programs that help the working class.
Another victim.
Heck Yea. The pres takes the blame for everything. It's why you Dems are still blaming Bush for everything.
left - Of course across the board cuts to defense are bad. Some things need to be strengthened and others cut, but we do have to make deep cuts to defense. We cannot continue to spend many times what every other country spends on defense. We cannot continue to try to police the whole world. We need to stop trying to build hospitals, roads, and schools in places where we are hated. Spend that money building hospitals, roads, and schools here at home.
Love to hear Democrats give a lesson in economics. Its tantamount to letting Jennifer Anniston talk about how to date and keep a guy faithful.
Totally foreign to them.
Yes, totally foreign... The republicans told us lower corporate taxes would create more jobs... where are they?
Probably where the GM plants are hiring; China, Russia, and other NON-American sites.
Hey Its About Time - When was the corporate tax rate lowered?? Did I miss something?
Yes.. GM was already in the process of outsourcing jobs when they received the federal bail out. Perhaps Obama should have reversed that.
However, for GM, they do qualify for a REPUBLICAN TAX CREDIT because they MOVED Jobs to other countries..... hmmmm.. Gotta love the Republicans for their 'way to create jobs' in america
The Punjab of Java Pour
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6307293/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/t/bush-quietly-signs-corporate-tax-cut-bill/#.USPz_h04tSM
Enjoy.
P.S. Obama offered to keep corporate taxes lower... provided we close loopholes. The Gop of course, said "no"
ItsAboutTime.......OK, I see, Obama offered something so in your mind corporate taxes were lowered. Figures! Obama's so called "offer" came with what strings attached. Fill me in you brilliant guy you!
obama is the reason the economy is in such terrible shape, his obamacare will put us into a very long recession if not into a depression. It will be years after he leaves office before we can get unemployment below 7-1/2%. We would be in far better circumstances if he played golf every day or just resigned now.
“Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured………But not everyone must prove they are a citizen.”
“And now, any of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens.”
- Ben Stein
Not sure about a depression but there is a big storm coming this fall. Dems signed it without reading it (pelosi told them to).
We love Obama Care and it is good for the Nation.
Wait until that horror of Obamacare becomes a complete reality next year, and then you'll try once again to blame Republicans, unicorns, Bush, the weather, etc for that mess as well.
www. forbes. com/sites/gracemarieturner/2013/01/20/with-obamacares-repeal-blocked-congress-works-to-dismantle-and-defund-it/
"
Kind of like what Obama is now doing with the sequester he signed.
Job1
In terms of burgers... Buns, meat, and condiments will be taxed. Some people will get free burgers. Some people will pay more for the same burger. And unfortunately, many will still not have a burger.
How exactly is this good for the nation?
Job1, I'll have a Dr Pepper with that #2
For those who do not understand economics it is important to point out that a deficit consists of TWO factors; revenue and spending. Spending has not increased as drastically under this president as it did the previous one. However, the great Bush recession took its toll on the revenue side of the equation.
Federal Revenue by year in Trillions
2001 1.991
2002 1.853 (Bush tax cuts begin)
2003 1.782 (more Bush tax cuts)
2004 1.88
2005 2.153
2006 2.40 (housing bubble begins to burst)
2007 2.57
2008 2.524 (Bush recession begins)
2009 2.105 (Bush recession continues)
2010 2.162 (Bush recession ends in late 2009)
2011 2.30
Therman, or J willard blah blah... This is the same post as you just posted. This makes you redundant and boring. Actually Clinton allowed the housing market to be traded like commodities. Lenders were handing out loans left and right with virtually no accountability. They knew the loans could be bundled up and sold, warts and all, for a huge profit. They and Clinton did not care that a major default was looming. You are an idiot to blame Bush. The Bush administration warned of the upcoming disaster.
I guess if you lie long enough even the liar starts believing the lie.
Funny that you didn't offer up the other side of the equation. Perhaps because spending has gone up.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=200
THE GREAT RECESSION- YES WE DID BUILD THAT!
Now give us the keys back?
Drop dead
The Republican Party is so angry with all of you who voted Obama back into office that to punish you and the country we love will not vote to keep this country from going into sequester. They could care less what they do to the US, they want to hurt Obama and all of us are just collateral damage as far as they are concerned. The right wing has Hubris and if you didn't see the program I urge you to find in via Google or Bing.
It's called politics William.
Its been very obvious from day one of President Obamas presidency. Thier main goal was to destroy him and they came right out and said it. Talk about treasonous unAmerican bastards?
And we have imbecilles who buy into what Fox News tells them and support this party of greed?
Its mind boggling
people support the very ones that would cut thier heads off.
You should be happy you got your higher taxes and a four dollar gas bonus to boot???
And more taxes to come!!!
Johnny I will take them over you and your lazy shiftless asses on the left any day any day. You libturds only take that is why you voted for santa bama frebies. 47% of our population on the take where the hell is your pride punks I would be embarrased.
Johnny-3621820
Good point. Rep. Pelosi did everything to help President Bush.
William
you show your love of the country by voting for a horribly underqualified socialist community organizer???
Thats why this country is in a tailspin that no foreign enemy could have done.
The stupidity of the voting block that this administration panders to is pathetic
How long has Obama been the president? How long has he put this on hold, so that he could push his Liberal progressive agenda?
Learn this.
It is never BHO's fault. Even the suggestion that BHO has made mistakes, gets his constituents calling his critics names such as racist, homophobic, obstructionist, xenophobic, facists, nazis etc.
The progressives have made BHO their deity; therefore any criticism is blasphemy in their eyes.
Some of them even want to put you on lists and they advocate rounding up conservatives and conducting summary executions. You know since according to progressives the US Consitution is outdated and flawed. We do not need freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to trial by juries, the right to bear arms, protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. All that stuff is phooey.
Obama needs to go back to Florida and play more golf with adulterers
Wonder what happened to all of the "shared sacrifice's that Obama kept on preaching, I guess it doesn't apply to Kings
When are we going to learn, that our government does not care one iota what happens to any of us. They sit on their fat butts in Washington, and complain like children, having tantrums, while the American people keep paying their salaries, giving them medical care, while the rest of us suffer. I have had it with Congress, and the house, and I hope that the American people will be smart enough in the next elections to vote theses jokers out of office and put some one in there that cares a little bit.
After FDR was in office for 4 years, unemployment was at 18%. And he was working with a congress that actually wanted to improve the economy.
We were fortunate to supply, arm, and rebuild the rest of the world. Our monopoly didn't last long.
Compared to Bush president Obama is an economic savior.
Dick cheney-"deficicts dont matter"
Unless theres a nagger in da whitehouse
Its all FDR's fault.
No you don't get it. To get it, you would have to understand how close we were to a full blown depression at the end of 2008 and that isn't going to happen.
Presidents Wilson, Roosevelt, Johnson, Carter and King Obama got us into this mess; the 5 Great Socialist Presidents.
Actually 94% of the national debt belongs to just 3 people, Reagan, Bush and Bush-Cheney
Obama needs to create some debt, in order to match these guys.
Obama has been pretty stingy about creating new debt.
http://reaganbushdebt.org/CalculationDetails.aspx
JOBS 1 --do...do......do....doo.......dooo.................do.....doo.....- what la-la land are you living in? Regan and Bush = 16 years in office; Barak H. Obama 4 1/2 years in office. You are as math challenged as Barry!
Job1
When you can post a credible link from MSM (CBS, ABC, CNN, Bloomberg, Forbes, Etc) then it may be plausible.
Until then, it's just laughable.
I said I want cheese with that #2!
Perhaps Obama needs to check with the CBO Director about the actual data. The CBO does its financial projections based on current law. Those projections now include the budget caps from the 2011 debt deal, the fiscal cliff deal, and all the sequestration cuts being implemented as scheduled on March 1st.
Here is a comment from the CBO Director's testimony to both the House and Senate Budget Committees last week: "We expect that growth in real GDP will pick up after this year, to about 3½ percent per year in 2014 and the following few years."
A real GDP growth rate of 3 1/2% is almost twice the GDP growth rate of the past 3 years. Does that sound like a devastated economy to you??? It sounds to me like a booming economy compared to what we have seen these past 3 years from Obamanomics. The simple fact is that Obama cannot stand the thought of ANY spending cuts as he believes in a federal government in total control of everything we do. Cutting spending will prevent Obama from having the "big government" he desires.
It really scares me that this country is in such dire straits that an $85 billion cut in a $3.5 trillion annual outlay will cause the entire country to collapse! Folks, that's 2.23%. If you got paid $1,000 last week, and for the next 10 weeks you're only going to get $978 per week, would you be able to adjust your spending to deal with it? Apparently our government is so addicted to spending that it will collapse, or at least so dishonest that it will make us think it will collapse, with just a 2% haircut. That is frightening.
No Jose. The world will fall apart.
The country will not collapse. Just add another million to the unemployed. Maybe get unemployment back up to 9% or so which the republicans are drooling over. They don't like the cuts to defense but they do get an equal amout of cuts to stuff that benefit the middle class and poor.
Best days of the year are government holidays. Traffic was great yesterday and guess what? I didn't miss the feds one bit. Lay em all off.
Hey Libs, You do realize Obama proposed the sequester, yes? I firmly believe the liberal base is beyond help. The DNC is the party of lies, deception and blame. No amount of rational accurate information can help them. They blindly follow their master and King until they all fall on their swords at his command.
Yes and Republicans loved it at the time because they thought theyed gain the whitehouse back and wouldnt have to deal with it.
THE GREAT RECESSION- YES YOU DID BUILD THAT
We arent buying what the right is selling.
The world hates you
Hey Libs, You do realize Obama proposed the sequester, yes?
We do know that this is what they are saying on Fox and the web sites that cater to the right wing crazies.
Basically obama is a sham, he had no experience at managing a fried chicken outlet or anything else for that matter. The guy has the ability to speak, end of story. His little brain-dead lemmings hang on every false promise that spews from his lips, they dance and cry at the sound of his voice, the lemming news outlets do the same thing, listen to Lian Williams, Chunk Mathews and all of the rest of these lifetime union dimwits that would sell their mothers retirement nest-egg to have a pro-union mouth piece occupying our oval office. He is a fraud.............end of story. The lemmings voted for him numerous time in the two fraud elections, now we are just another 3rd world country with rigged elections, just call us U-Somalia..
What if I just call u an imbeccile?
Johnny,
Keep trying.
Little Johnny:
You're just another union member giving his soul to the union bosses, or another welfare loving suckling unable to think or do for yourself or your family. One pathetic leech needs many pathetic leeches voting for him.
Johnny, what if I just call you.. never mind, not worth the effort.
Its all George Washington's fault. That is my liberal argument. Never mind that I do not have any factual basis for my argument. It is what it is. I believe and it is so.
The great recession- is that factual enough for you?
What argument? That George Washington was a land speculator and the richest President we've ever had?
The probability that "The Proclamation of 1763" turned him from a Loyalist to a Revolutionist?
Johnny,
There was only a fledgling economy when George Washington was POTUS. I am pretty sure he had nothing to do with "The Great Recession".
The only thing "devastating" the economy is the A-Hole Hussein. Where's al quaida when you really need them?
Probably hanging out at Bushes ranch.
Still mad about Obama killing bin Laden?