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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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I wish there was no congress! We Americans could do better. Nullification not that bad! States can work the stuff out better. Keep them..Congress.. for Defense and all else comes back to the States. This crap sure as hell gets old. The Republicans wear this again. The Democrats though want to save the whole dam world with our money. No way out!
Your right. Dept of homeland security - good bye. Depet of education - goodbye. About half the federal govt could be wiped out with a 50 k per year accountant writing checks based on population and we would all be better off.
lookout, I am sure Obama shares you wish.
jolly joker: Interesting post! I understand why you would want the Department of Education closed. Hell, education never did you any good so why should anyone have it? Right??!!?? Waste of money! Close Homeland Security. I can see why you would say that. Hell, there ain't no reason to have Homeland Security in Dogpatch where you were born and live. Right?!? No need for any of those things.
Bohner you are on my sheite list for giving comrade obama anything in the first place,
you had better stick to your guns for the rest of his term!!!
Why do we even have a government. They don't listen and they do what they want. Let them live on our earnings. Oh, I forgot, they spend that on one meal or night out. How many of the real AMERICANS have had a real nice out with a limo, meals that cost $300 a dish and new clothes? They keep getting richer & we get poorer. I give up on this government. They our not doing what's best for us. They only looking out for themselves. We aren't even allowed to say "In God We Trust". Everyone believes in God. They have taken away all our rights. We are their puppets. Who needs them!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope you Crap Staffers are reading what is thought of all of YOU!
What rights have been take away? The only one I can think of is the right to make your own medical decisions......that has be taken away by a few Republican governors and has been tried at the Federal level. Beyond that, can't think of one.
Susan Tucker: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt??!!??? Did you pass the GED??!!??
Found a Staffer!
Susan,
WE are the government. They've just become so consumed with greed that they've forgotten that. It's our job to remind them.
I've come to realize that democracy isn't something we can take for granted anymore. It's a work in progress that requires each of us to remain vigilent to protect it. To think it can ever be taken for granted after elections are won or lost is the mistake that got us into this mess.
Please don't give up. That's the worst possible thing you can do. That's exactly what they want. The wrong people have all the wealth and have begun to think of themselves as gods.
You say you believe in God. I believe you. But, you're mistaken if you think all people do. And, don't be so quick to judge those who don't. I've learned that everyone deserves their moment to be heard and it doesn't matter what color, what creed, or what political ideals they hold close to their heart. What matters, what we need to focus on, is that the 98% of us have been purposefully divided on social issues to distract us from what we should be focusing on.
Voting is our only way out of this . . . Hopefully, one day, balance can be restored. But, right now it's a clear choice between two very polarized extremes on the political spectrum.
Please reconsider the potential of your vote and try to remain hopeful. There is a way out of this. It's my wish that those who haven't yet realized that we need to put aside our differing opinions on important issues (yet unrelated to what's at stake right now) and unite in our resolve to restore our country's to its beautiful diversity instead of watching it become something we won't even be able to recognize.
The markets sure love this crap! Down 200 points!
The market is down today due to the election results in Italy.
Republicans, headed by John Boehner don't seem to be listening to Americans. We, a majority, including some Republicans, think it will take both a cut in spending and a revenue increase to fix the deficit problem. Boehner and his ilk seem to be okay with cutting and slashing everything in sight but the sacred Pentagon but don't dare even raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires one cent. Boehner and the Republicans will get the blame if things get screwed up royally and it will be well deserved. They wanted cuts now they are getting cuts. One should never take without a willingness to give. The Republicans want to take but not give.
Obama already got his tax increase now it is time for those spending cuts. The spending cuts should be retroactive to when the tax increase took effect.
I agree with you but Dam don't the Democrats ever stop the spending. Fisheries in Alaska?? Race Tracks, Health Care for the Country of France??
To be fair both parties spend on stupid things, I just think the Republicans spend on less things
I am not sure if this is true that Obama got his tax increase but if it is true, how about next asking for Boehner's resignation as Boehner is an incompetent fool.
Don't like him can't Lead Crap. Neither can Cantor. Looks like good old Joe to the rescue again. But Dam turn off the spicket of our dollars. Obama just spends. Now 9.00 an hour for wages??
You know its true that Obama got his tax increase if you work for a living.
I see a lot of petty whining and crying, What I do NOT see is any tax hikes in the idea's Obama has put forward, Cutting out the tax deduction for a corporate jet, Cutting out the deductions like Romney's $50k for care of his HORSE,,,,These are not tax hikes, These are the very same loopholes Romney and the Republican Party have been running on while trying to convince us will FIX the deficit and improve the economy for over a year and fought for last year (Republicans got 99% of what THEY wanted, Remember??)
Make the cuts or make the deal Obama is offering, There are no other choices
Ya gotta remember that a thoroughly good idea presented by the GOP is a ridiculously bad idea if presented by the Dems....that is the nature of the game.
Income taxes were raised to save us from the fiscal cliff. Now that the sequester is here, a "self-induced crisis" signed by President Obama, the automatic cuts must be avoided.
So, exactly how is the "balanced approach" supposed to work?
The bills passed in the last congress are HISTORY. They are vapors..gone..kaput. They mean nothing now that the new congress is in place. Unless we see some new legislation from Boehner, he has krap.
Both bills the Republican house passed simply moved the cuts from the Military side over to Medicare, Medicaid, and other socially responsible programs, They KNEW Democrats would not vote for them!!
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
Ronald Reagan
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
Ronald Reagan
Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.
Ronald Reagan
The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.
Ronald Reagan
Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.
Ronald Reagan
The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.
Ronald Reagan
One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.
Ronald Reagan
The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.
Ronald Reagan
Isn't Reagan the President who raised taxes 11 times and tripled the deficit???
Facts don't help the Americans reading this nor do they alleviate the rumbas syndrome in the Leadership
This from a McCarthy toadie.
Reagan was a tired old fool whose pleasant smile masked a hideous contempt for social justice.
Reagan is the president who brought about the fall of the Soviet Union and created 18 million new jobs.
After the end of the ’81–’82 recession unemployment fell sharply as growth expanded dramatically. Twenty-seven months after the official end of that recession, unemployment had fallen to 7.5 percent from a peak of 10.8 percent.
At the same point after the recent recession, unemployment had fallen not 3.3 percentage points, but only 1.4 percentage points. The reason is not hard to find. In the seven quarters following the ’81–’82 recession, GDP growth averaged 7.1 percent (on an annual basis). In the current post-recession span it has averaged only 2.8 percent.
We need 2.5 percent growth just to absorb increases in the work force. The first quarter of 2011 had only a 1.8 percent increase in GDP.
But Reagan’s low-tax-rates, less-regulation, America-is-the-hope-of-the-world philosophy also differs sharply from Obama’s, in which taxing the rich, turning always to the government for answers, and America-causes-the-world’s-problems are cherished principles.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/04/29/reagan-recovery-vs-obama-recovery/
Reagan also increased taxes 11 times after he found out trickle down wasn't working. He also started taxing unemployment insurance and social security benefits. this mostly affected the middle class and seniors. he also eliminated the tax deductions for auto loan interest and credit card interest which also affected mostly the middle class and seniors. Interest rates for mortgages was at an all time high of 18%. gas prices doubled. the national debt tripled. reagan sucked.
Reagan broke the back of Carter's inflation and stagnation. Employment zoomed and most importantly, America felt good about itself again, not like today. But we can't be too harsh with Obama. Just look at the terrible economy he inherited--from himself!! Excellent.
Democrats are committed to reducing the effect the rich have on our nation's politics.
And if you donate just $500,000 to a pro-Obama action committee you can get special access to the White House to talk to the President about this problem.
If you pay $100 million, you can buy a Republican candidate for President.
And Obama spent $1 billion and $800 million in his 2008 election.
If this budget and deficit crisis really requires the American public to help its elected officials act because they are incapable of doing their jobs, fine. But these folks need to stop with all the half-truths and spin.
Instead of the President talking about how we in America must have shared sacrifice, or bemoaning the lack of GOP cooperation, how about dispensing with the BS and specifically outlining a clear alternate approach to the auto-budget.
As for the Speaker, instead of perpetuating a Mexican stand-off, or whining about how you already made the first move, if you have a plan that is so much better, how come you don't have it out there for public consumption?
The sad truth is that neither party really wants to be responsible for articulating a plan to fix the budget and solve the deficit crisis. Because it's far easier to hide and blame the other side rather than rebutting critics of their respective approach.
Would it be that hard to take 15 minutes on the nightly news to compare the President's approach and the GOP Congressional approach side-by-side making it possible for the public to make some sense of this nonsense?
Republican or Democrat, it's not rocket science that balancing the budget will take both tax cuts and revenue adjustments. But apparently it is a task of epic proportions to actually discuss the subject matter with any degree of clarity or truth.
Here is the truth the Lemmings and Sheeple are afraid you will find out....In 2011 the bipartisan plans for the Budget Control Act were presented to the President,,And the President (Obama) demanded that the "Sequester" be included in the plan....So as usual, you lying deceiving Demoncrats are hiding the fact that again, you and your worthless leader Obama, have created the entire problem and now your not willing to pay for your Demands!!! LMAO...
The President can demand all he wants. IF the House does not pass the legislation with the sequester in, it does not happen. The majority of GOP reps put it in and passed it.
The Democrats also passed it in the Senate
the democrats passed it in the senate with the majority of support coming from the republicans.
Well, in exchange for tax increases, Obama just wants to use the extra money for more spending. Is anyone the least bit surprised?
Reagan raised taxes how many times? Just saying
Think it was 11 times...and he tripled the deficit.
Just saying, Reagan cut taxes, and took the economy out of the ditch...
Or did you forget that?
"I did't leave the democrat party, it left me"... Now explain the over 25 years of growth that the democrats killed..
You know barney loves franks "I want to roll the dice"... 2003 when GWB wanted to put fannie & freddy under the control of the fed...
"And, of course, one of the larger obstacles to minority homeownership is financing, is the ability to have their dream financed. Right now, we have a program that all of you are familiar with, maybe our fellow Americans are, and that’s what they call a Section 8 housing program, that provides billions of dollars in vouchers to help low-income Americans with their rent. It encourages leasing. We think it’s important that we use those vouchers, that federal money to help low-income Americans go from being somebody who leases to somebody who owns; that we use the Section 8 program to not only help with down payment, but to help with continuing monthly mortgage payments after they’re into their new home. It is a – it is a way to help us meet this dream of 5.5 million additional families owning their home.
I’m also going to encourage the lending industry to develop a mortgage market so that this script, these vouchers, can regularly be used as a source of payment to provide more capital to lenders, who can then help more families move from rental housing into houses of their own.
Freddie Mae – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – I see the heads who are here; I want to thank you all for coming – (laughter) – have committed to provide more money for lenders. They’ve committed to help meet the shortage of capital available for minority home buyers.
Franklin told me at the meeting where we kicked this office, he said, I promise you we will help, and he has, like many others in this room have done.
Freddie Mac recently began 25 initiatives around the country to dismantle barriers and create greater opportunities for homeownership. One of the programs is designed to help deserving families who have bad credit histories to qualify for homeownership loans."
This is a speech Bush gave in 2003.
Now, he wanted to do what with FNMA and FMAC in 2003 ?
The President proposed this plan to kick the can down the road to avoid making the decision that needs to be made until after the election. It was pure political maneuvering and he ended stepping on his dick. These cuts belong to him no matter who the left wing tries to blame. Now his only proposal is to raise taxes, no cuts at all.
Lets the cuts kick in so everyone starts to feel the pain and keep the cuts coming until the left finally realizes that all the free ice cream they voted for is beginning to melt. If we paid a dollar a minute toward the deficit it would take 600,000 years to pay off and that does not include the amount the interest will continue to build up. Think about that...600,000 years at a dollar a second and it still would not be paid off.
His promise, and "Let me make this perfectly clear", I promise to take all the money from the people who did not vote for me and give it to the people that did". I promise to pass health care for everyone and I will do it in such a manner that we will take it from Medicare and the seniors that paid into the system and will use that money to pay for those that did not pay into the system. It will be deficit neutral because we will make those that employ people pay for it. And I promise not to do that until after I am reelected because employers will start laying off people, reducing their working hours so they won't have to pay and people will lose their employer based health care because they will all become part time workers. So I hope you understand why I have to pass all this legislation to take affect until after I am reelected otherwise you would not vote for me.
So let the cuts kick in and keep them coming. I will get buy because I worked for it and saved and invested my money. I don't owe anything to anyone and neither do their employers other than providing them a job and they are being forced to lay or or go tits up because of the government. Oh, but you can always blame it on the Republicans, Bush, the Tea Party, the NRA, Fox News or whatever else your feeble minds can think of. Tough times are coming and the sooner the better.
Obama: I need to spend money, and you the people need to supply that money. Now wake up and see that I won the election.
Now I am going to send out my dopes eeerrrrr cab-o-nut to the states to drive home my spending rights...
Now remember I am the phucking president... And I won the election..
It's really a shame that the GOP doesn't remember that.
We don't have a spending problem, we have a President with an OPM addiction.
Grover Nordquist squeezed his nuts in one hand and Mitch McConnel's in his other a little too hard after the last one Obama got. Grover must get some big checks from the rich he works as their intimidator for. Maybe Grover is getting a lot of foreign checks like from China too? Sen Ted Cruz the commie hunter should ask Grover these things since he asked and inferred Chuck Hagel may be getting foreign checks into his bank accounts. Repubnuts are not the only ones that can play the Accusation Game!
Would anyone care (dare?) to list the specific CUTS that Obama and the Spendocrats have given us?
And for those of you who want to claim that reducing future spending growth is a cut, THAT DOESN'T COUNT. Those are not cuts.
And neither is the $700B that was taken from Medicare to pay for Obamacare.
C'mon lefties, lets see your list of the "cuts" you claim that have been made!
I'm not a Democrat, But there are as of now well over a $400 billion in spending cuts done with Obama's signature, WAKE UP
You don't believe in the "bend the future cost trajectory" fairy?
I'd like to see one of the cuts that the GOP would offer in exchange...you know, those phantom loopholes and deductions that were absent during the campaign.
Bo,
If this is the case then please SPECIFICALLY name the cut and the amount that was allegedly cut! I have not yet seen anyone able to do this.
What I do see being claimed as cuts are reductions in planned future growth of spending. These are NOT true cuts. A CUT is when you spend LESS than you are currently spending. You can say that we spend $100 now and plan to spend $105 next year so if we only spend $103 it is a $2 "cut". That would be a $3 INCREASE instead of the planned $5 increase. In order to have a $2 CUT you need to spend $98 instead of $100!
So where is the list of REAL cuts???? Can you name any?????
It's amazing that Boehner is showing his ability as a leader by letting Harry Reid propose legislation....assuming that he could get anything past McConnell. Majority in the Senate? We've all seen how that works with the party of NO!
Paycheck becomes 20% lighter effective April.
But my Tuesdays are looking pretty free now.
'You got your tax increase,' Boehner.
No, the Tax Rates on the Wealthy are not back to what they were under Clinton, Oil Companies are still getting their Welfare, there are still major amounts of money in off-shore accounts still not getting Taxed.
We tried it the Republican way and look where we are at.
It's time to try it another way, the empirical evidence proves "Trickle Down Economics" failed. The Rich got Richer and the Poor got Poorer on a Grand Scale. Bush took a surplus from Clinton and Ruined it leaving a terrible mess behind him...
Perhaps we should return to providing housing through NINJA loans, deregulate banks, and ignore the derivative markets. Ya' know, the good old Clinton years.
Republicans want the Banks Regulated? They would throw a Temper Tantrum if anything was regulated, most importantly the BANKSTERS and Wall Street. I have been disappointed with some Democrats but Republicans want Zero Regulations on Banks, Wall Street, The Real Estate Industry, you name it.
We saw where that got us when Bush Jr. turned a blind eye towards the BANKSTERS and the Real Estate Industry and then the Sub Prime Melt Down unfolded under his watch!
what a bunch of horse chit.... there are no cuts, just a slight slow down in growth
oh no we are all going to die saturday, because spending is slowing down slightly
Republicans Stand Your Ground - enough is enough from this Tyrant
you wont see anything getting done for our country by both the democrats and repubicans. they all have their pet programs. the only way we will see any true government reform and change for the betterment of the average middle class citizen is to vote in third party and independent candidates. get this through your heads people democrats and republicans are just a dog and pony show. time for both these parties to go the way of the dinosaur.