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The nation’s capital was enveloped in a familiar kind of gridlock late Monday, as Republicans again demanded that President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats act first to put off $85 billion in automatic cuts slated to take effect on Friday.
“The president says we have to have another tax increase to avoid the sequester,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said of the hefty and indiscriminate spending cuts. “Well, Mr. President, you got your tax increase. It's time to cut spending.”
Related: Obama to govs: Push Congress to avert cuts
As Congress returned to work following a weeklong recess, the Obama administration and lawmakers appeared no closer to resolving the automatic spending cuts before their Friday deadline. While both Democrats and Republicans bemoan the cuts as potentially catastrophic for the economy and the national defense, both sides have been locked in a virtual staring match over the sequester.
Republican House members publicly call on President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to come up with a plan to avoid looming automatic spending cuts.
The end result is that the cuts seem likely to take effect, if only for some limited period of time, come Friday. Both sides spent Monday posturing rather than working toward a solution.
For their part, the House GOP is content to rest upon the two bills they had passed in the last Congress meant to offset the $85 billion in spending cuts with a series of additional, alternative cuts. Democrats, led by Obama, had rejected that alternative as “unbalanced” because it did not include some measure of new tax revenue.
But, buoyed by stronger approval ratings than congressional Republicans, the president has also been generally unwilling to budge from his stance that a sequester replacement would have to include new tax revenue – likely through closing loopholes and deductions – in addition to other spending cuts.
“Unfortunately, in just four days Congress is poised to allow a series of arbitrary, automatic budget cuts to kick in that will slow our economy, eliminate good jobs, and leave a lot of folks who are already pretty thinly stretched scrambling to figure out what to do,” Obama told a bipartisan group of governors at the White House this morning.
The president leaned on the governors to pressure their respective states' congressional delegations to support a compromise agreement.
Obama has relied increasingly on these public events to make his arguments to the public, pursuing a sort of "outside" strategy meant to rally pressure on lawmakers to strike deals on a range of issues. For instance, Obama will travel to Newport News, Va., on Tuesday to highlight the negative toll the sequester would take on that region's defense industry.
For their part, Republicans have derided the president as spending more time on campaigning against the GOP than working toward a deal.
"Instead of using our military men and women as campaign props, if the president was serious, he'd sit down with Harry Reid and begin to address our problems," Boehner said Monday, referencing the dire warnings of furloughed workers and potential pay cuts for some employees involved with the nation's defenses.
Boehner and the rest of the House GOP appeared no closer to relenting on their demand that any final compromise originate in the Senate. After a roller-coaster past two years in the House, in which conservative lawmakers often threatened to upset delicate agreements Boehner had struck with Obama, the speaker has adopted a strategy of deferring to the Senate on many top legislative matters.
Before the recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the rest of the Democratic leadership unveiled a sequester proposal that would offset the impending cuts with new taxes on corporations and the ultrawealthy, more modest defense cuts and additional cuts in discretionary spending.
"Congress has the power to prevent these self-inflicted wounds," Reid said Monday on the Senate floor. "We have the power to turn off the sequester."
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio responds to President Barack Obama's remarks to the nation's governors earlier today about how to fend off the impending automatic budget cuts, Monday, Feb. 25 on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Amid the pessimism about the prospects for a deal, Boehner half-heartedly told reporters that "hope springs eternal" that an agreement could be reached by Friday.
"The president can sit down with Harry Reid tonight and work with Senate Democrats, who have the majority in the Senate to move a bill. It's time for them to act. I've made this clear for months now, and yet we've seen nothing," he said.
This story was originally published on Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:18 PM EST
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Stand your ground Boehner !! You already compromised your principals once. This was obama's plan in the first place, let him fix it with some spending cuts. Enough taxes already !!
They need to cut spending and keep cutting until a balanced budget is achieved then cut some more to start paying down the debt that people in government created.
Common, that means your entitlements go first.
Could we reduce some of our spending by refusing to provide welfare , food stamps , ADC , ect . to people who are in this country illegally or would that be to much like common sense and offend liberals ?
How about ending federal tax refunds to people that don't pay federal taxes or cap it at the amount that was paid.
Obama is the biggest liar that has ever been spawned. He just allowed the payroll tax to increase as most of you have seen on your checks last month and then turns around to blame the republicans. He is a dirty stinking pile of dog dump and anyone that believes him is a fool.
Social Security is in financial difficulties. Payroll taxes that were cut to stimulate the economy were allowed to go back to normal rates. Social Security needs more revenues or benefit cuts to remain viable. Idiotic argument to blame either party for allowing SS tax cuts to expire.
the SS tax holiday was nothing more than money for votes. Once the election was over there was no need to continue the pay offs.
If obama want's to hire more gov. worker's then cut the hired one's pay to do it.Let the Sequester begin.Helpfull hint to save money no jail time for nonvilent drug offender's.
Obama and the senate are holding America hostage with spending cuts in place too hurt the people! JUST LIKE A STICKUP!
Yep, Harry Reid and the party of Do Nothings.
How ridiculous they two sides cant find 85 billion to cut. That could be removed from one Federal dept and never be missed.
Obama is incapable of sitting down with the Republican's.. he would rather be a dictator and tell them what to do.. he would rather run all over the country and spread his lies to the masses of people who frankly don't give a damn! Pray tell us when was the last time you saw him sit down with any of them?? He does have a spending problem, the same kind of spending problems I see many people get into.. and then they end up in bankruptcy court! He is bankrupting the country and people don't give a damn! They have no clue that America is on the verge of a depression unheard of.. because mainstream media doesn't tell the truth or they lie. So I say to all those who are in denial.. will you wake up when it comes and you can't feed your children! And will you still worship your Messiah then?
Vote for one:
a) Obama bust on Mt. Rushmore
b) Leningrade (Russia)?
Pick one
Having had a boat for a while, and whenever I needed it to get fixed my mechanic jokingly said "You know BOAT stands for Bust Out Another Thousand".
With Bo-Dumbo we have boat spending Bust Out Another Trillion!!
Facts: Tea-Publicans can't stand the truth!!!!
Paul Craig Roberts served in Reagan Treasury Dept, and also worked as editor at the Wall Street Journal. He knows about what he speaks. He described the horrendous economic situation for the US Economy. He puts blame on Wall Street and US Corporate executives who use Asian labor in outsourcing, rendering the US nation of workers poor.
But as Herbert Stein, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Richard Nixon was fond of saying, Things that can’t go on forever, don’t.
I just can’t get over the Greed of the Rich!! They are not investing in America!! They’re going to wait till Tea-Publicans drive America into the ditch again, and pick up the pieces!!!
America’s problems started August 1971!!
These are things Republicans don't want you to remember!!
With inflation unresolved by August 1971, and an election year looming, Nixon convened a summit of his economic advisers at Camp David. Nixon then announced temporary wage and price controls, allowed the dollar to float against other currencies, and ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. This meant our money was now worthless!!! Inflationary dollars!!
The first signs of impending trouble are the exploding budget deficits themselves. They began, of course, under the parlous economic stewardship of Ronald Reagan. Reagan cut the marginal tax rate on the wealthiest of Americans from 70% to 38%. He promised it would spur an orgy of investment and rocket the economy to new levels of production and prosperity. Instead, his supply side economics did the exact opposite. It produced the deepest recession since the Great Depression.
During Reagan's administration, the unemployment rate declined from 7.5% to 5.4%, with the rate reaching highs of 10.8% in 1982 and 10.4% in 1983. Reagan also earned the nickname "the Teflon President", in that public perceptions of him were not tarnished by the controversies that arose during his administration.
Output fell 2.2% in 1982 while budget deficits soared. When Reagan took office in 1981, the national debt stood at $995 billion. Twelve years later, by the end of George H.W. Bush’s presidency, it had exploded to $4 trillion. Reagan was a B grade movie actor and a doddering, probably clinically senile president, but he was a sheer genius at rewarding his friends by saddling other people with debts.
Bill Clinton reversed Reagan’s course, raising taxes on the wealthy, and lowering them for the working and middle classes. This produced the longest sustained economic expansion in American history. Importantly, it also produced budgetary surpluses allowing the government to begin paying down the crippling debt begun under Reagan. In 2000, Clinton’s last year, the surplus amounted to $236 billion. The forecast ten year surpluses stood at $5.6 trillion. It was the last black ink America would see for decades, perhaps forever.
I got your truth right here!
So who is most responsible for the idea of sequestration?
2013-02-20 The other day, Montana Democrat Sen. Max Baucus said of the sequester, “the White House recommended it, frankly.” Senator Max Baucus (D., Mont.) admitted to the local CBS station in Billings, Mont., that President Obama bears responsibility for the sequester: “The president’s part of the sequester. The White House recommended it, frankly, back in August 2011. And so now we’re feeling the effects of it.
Also in 2011, Joe Biden said the sequester was the overwhelming redeeming feature of the fiscal deal.
Bob Woodward reports in his book that White House Office of Management Director Jack Lew and
Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors took the proposal for sequestration to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and then it was presented to congressional Republicans.
(Monday, November 21, 2011) President Barack Obama says he will veto any effort to get rid of automatic spending cuts that would take effect in 2013 if Congress can't find other ways of trimming government
deficits. Those spending cuts include significant reductions to the Pentagon that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said would be devastating to the military. Obama issued his threat Monday an hour after leaders of Congress' deficit-reduction super-committee announced that they had failed to reach
agreement on cutting the debt. The inability of the committee to meet its deadline means the government is facing about $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts in January 2013.
Bo-Dumbo wanted it (Ask Mr. Lew and Mr. Baucus, and Mr. Woodward), Bo-Dumbo wanted it, Bo-Dumbo signed it, in 2011 Bo-Dumbo threatened to VETO any bill to reduce it, Bo-Dumbo owns it!
What Truth, all I see is more Propaganda, you Traitor, Dems wouldnt know the truth if it hit em in the face, keep fanning the flames ass, your loosing, and you really dont want to push real americans much further, you trying to start a civil war, if we do, obama gonna have to run far
And the House and Senate during all those Presidents was Democratically controlled UNTIL Clinto who had a Republican house now correct me but a President doesnt authorize spending but Congress does so therefore technically was the Reagan Bush Congress responsible for the Debt and the Gingrich house responsible for Clintons surplus
A page out of Obama's playbook.
"Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. (...) All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. (...) The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another. (...) The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however, is not complex, but simple and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood."
As to the methods to be employed, he explains:
"Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively and, in so far as it is favourable to the other side, present it according to the theoretical rules of justice; yet it must present only that aspect of the truth which is favourable to its own side. (...) The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward. (...) Every change that is made in the subject of a propagandist message must always emphasize the same conclusion. The leading slogan must of course be illustrated in many ways and from several angles, but in the end one must always return to the assertion of the same formula."
Mein Kampf chapter VI
Your plan is to spend our way out of debt and blame Republicans?
I looked up this Roberts he is also a strong supporter of Muslims. Hates Israel and has showed contempt against the US policy's for a long time now. That explains why he left the government. No one wanted the lying trash on them.
The only reason the Clinton administration showed the phantom surplus was the bidget plan from the House of Representatives. When your wonderful dems once again gained control of the house, bye bye surplus, hello massive give away programs all financed by deficit spending.
Sequester, Hey Obama that means you cant go off on Air Force 1 unless your personaly Paying for the Gas, Ground AF1 !!
Sequester, Hey Boehner that means no more 3 day work weeks.
How about Michelles 747?
He might have to park Golf Cart One.
Here we go again, Bozo Boehner and his congress clowns protecting the well-to-do and all those large corporations like Google who didn't pay any taxes in 2012 (and bragged about it too). Hey Bozo do you think that the American people are that dumb? Let's get rid of the tax loopholes that the filthy rich set up for themselves for the past 60+ years. Who are you protecting? - Is it the enormously wealthy who don't give a hoot about us? It is time for those fat cats to pay their fair share. And perhaps start making up for all those times you hid behind those tax loopholes and start paying a little extra too. You and Minnie Mouse McConnell better start looking for another job in the near future. It looks like you won't be around much longer.
pilisugsug - stop listening to CNN and research yourself. You have been so brainwashed by the mainstream media you don't even know what's going on.
Bush had 23 million americans on entitlement programs
Obama has 50 million americans on entitlement programs
He HAS GOT TO STOP SPENDING money! That is what this is about!!!! Wake up or get out.
The sooner all of you realize that Democrats and Republicans are all the same the better off you will be. They are all wealthy and they are all using their jobs as a way to continue to take advantage of the system. They don't vote for what they think their voters want, they vote for what their campaign contributors want like the big oil companies and any other large conglomerates that have interests to protect. The only way to fix the system is to start voting out all of the incumbents every election even if it means voting against your party. This system wasn't designed to have congressmen serving for 20-50 years as long as voters put them in it leads to favors being owed and the average citizens getting screwed in the process.
Lets take a look at this when the fiscal cliff was going on the 77% of working americans got a 2% decrease in there pay with the hike in social security tax. now we made adjustments to our budgets and life went on now our Fearless Leader is crying like every democrat before him about the devastation of cuts and it only 2.3% just the same as all the working Americans just dealt with have the President finally lead this was his solution let him make the cuts it is only 85 Billion or just ask Warren Buffet to give up his entire fortune to stave of the Sequestration, or all you who favor more taxes can write a check to the IRS they do accept monies over what you have to pay. The president got his tax increase with the fiscal cliff and with that increase the democrats attach spending bills to it any reason to believe if they close more loop holes that a spending bill for the amount they expect to get from the closure wont be attached to it. Just do the cuts and then go for closing loopholes later
Obama - STOP SPENDING MONEY!
You have spent more money in 4 years than Bush did in 8.
We can not continue on this destructive path of negligent spending - MAKE CUTS! Who cares of we have to suffer at least we WILL STILL BE AMERICA. Obama wants America - gone - looking like the rest of the world - driving our economy down, spending trillions, we will be like Indonesia - where he's from!!!
Wake up people, he is destroying America.
Yeah, austerity has worked out so well in Europe hasn't it?
When Europe starts austerity we will find out what happened. So far they are all show and no go.
Everyone of the dopes in Washington should be replaced. Nothing but a bunch of worthless pieces of @!$%#.
My response to Boehner would be...., f.u., ya punk a_s b¡@tch!
Here we go again, Bozo Boehner and his congress clowns protecting the well-to-do and all those large corporations like Google who didn't pay any taxes in 2012 (and bragged about it too). Hey Bozo do you think that the American people are that dumb? Let's get rid of the tax loopholes that the filthy rich set up for themselves for the past 60+ years. Who are you protecting? - Is it the enormously wealthy who don't give a hoot about us? It is time for those fat cats to pay their fair share. And perhaps start making up for all those times you hid behind those tax loopholes and start paying a little extra too. You and Minnie Mouse McConnell better start looking for another job in the near future. It looks like you won't be around much longer.
Just ask Warren Buffet to write the check for the 85 Billion after all he want to pay more in taxes so here is his chance to forever engraciate himself to the American people and do as he says not just you do as he says. how many more times is The Fearless Leader going to ask the rich to contribute more, Just remember the words of Thomas Jefferson a Goverment large enough to supply all its people needs is also large enough to take all it needs
When is Obama going to give a budget to Congress?
Has a couple times in the past and no one voted for it. He probably does not want to go through the embarrassment again. He also might have to park Golf Cart One and go to work.
Not a single Democrat voted in favor of Obama's budgets, ever.
--THAT ALONE SPEAKS VOLUMES--
PLEASE PASS..
NEW IMMIGRATION BILL...
SO
OBAMA
Can Stay..in This Country...LEGALLY
If obama were a real leader, he would actually be working on a viable solution rather than playing golf and campaigning. But then again, why do anything hard when the loyal, obedient lap dogs at msnbc have convinced their gullable viewers that it is all George Bush's fault.
You need to use the Bully Pulpit to bully imbeciles. Comprendez?
How about his 7 Million dollar vacation to Hawaii at Christmas? Plus, it really inconvienienced the public as a whole so he could drive to the different golf courses and swing his clubs. At least when Bush was in office he vacationed at the Family Ranch in Texas most of the time. Obama is nothing more than a "popstar" President. It costs more money to keep him in glamour and travel than it costs to run an Army Infantry Battalion for a year. Oh, but, we need to cut military manpower. For what?!? To give more to entitlement programs for freeloaders?
Vomit
Mr. Boehner - they weren't the President's tax increases. They were the tax policy that the majority of Americans voted for in November. And if the President wanted tax increases all he had to do was nothing because those tax cuts were scheduled to expire - you remember that BS republican plan from 2001 don't you? When you all agreed to an expiration believing that they would never really have to expire? Quit your whining and get to work. Most of us understand that we have to pay for the programs and services we want - even useless tank factories in your district.
Bull crap get your head out of lord Obamas rear he started all this crap and we the people gonna finish it
Typical GOP bull@!$%#, they do not want to close tax loopholes for the wealthy & big business. Somethings that the Dems wanted back in December to try and avoid this sequester then as well as offering tax cuts to programs like the military budget also all the while offering to work with the GOP to prevent this. Since the GOP is never willing to do anything to help the country all the while protecting the weathest Americans and large corperations. Here comes this sequester, which the GOP is going to try and blame on President Obama and the Dems. Which is going to result in these tax hikes, so they say this is what the President wanted. When the truth is the President tried to work with the GOP as he has for the last 4 plus years, to avoid tax hikes and protect the American people. So here is Boenher blaming the President is stead of admitting that he and his GOP pals are unwilling to do what it takes to cut the deficit if it costs their wealthy donors a dime. Once again the GOP has failed the American people and as a result Americans need to see them for what they are and vote those a-holes out of office.
Aint what its about Nelson, your just too stupid to see it Traitor
Here we go again, Bozo Boehner and his congress clowns protecting the well-to-do and all those large corporations like Google who didn't pay any taxes in 2012 (and bragged about it too). Hey Bozo do you think that the American people are that dumb? Let's get rid of the tax loopholes that the filthy rich set up for themselves for the past 60+ years. Who are you protecting? - Is it the enormously wealthy who don't give a hoot about us? It is time for those fat cats to pay their fair share. And perhaps start making up for all those times you hid behind those tax loopholes and start paying a little extra too. You and Minnie Mouse McConnell better start looking for another job in the near future. It looks like you won't be around much longer.
Wake up nelson - stop listening to mainstream media and get off your lazy bum and research the truth for yourself. The problem with dems like you is that they believe money grows on trees the gov't grows in their backyard.
Bush = 23 million americans on entitlements
Obama = 50 million americans on entitlements
Go research it yourself.
Obama has spent more money in 4 years than Bush did in 8. AGain, get off your lazy bum and go find the figures. I dare you.
Wow, I guess FiestyRedhead still has no job. She wants to point fingers at people. If she has not found a job as of yet, she needs to. I see her posting here relentlessly while, obviously living off the system. It is her and people like her that truly are hurting the conutry as a whole. It is people like her that support Obama and his failed attempts to fix the economy because they think that they should be allowed to sit on the a$$e$ while some of us do the hard work and give away our hard earned dollars for "Social" programs.
Fiesty just wants the Free stuff she sold her soul and vote for to Obama, what she dont realize theyll never happen, she traitor simple.. Blocked her long time ago, cant see what she is saying
Obama has no clue as to how to get this slow rolling economy going in a better direction, his idea of government revenue is creating more tax increases. How did this idiot eveer get re-elected?
How he Lied and his menions, cheated, Voter Fraud, fake Promises, and now that he has what he wanted everyone is screwed, though the Traitors have no clue how bad they been screwed yet.
Newflash.............Obama has jsut said he will now sit dowe with McCain and Graham to talk about immigration. What happened to sequestration Obama? What a friggin loser. I was for it before I was against it, errrrrr now I am for it or am I against it? Who the hell knows when this idiot speaks? He is worse than Romeny on his worst day
Please get back to us when you have a better understanding what a disincentive is?
Get bacfk to me (us) when you listen to the news. Obama now wants to disciuss immigration, not sequestration. You need to branch out from NBC and ABC.