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Subscribe to RSSThe AP: “President Barack Obama is arguing that looming government-wide spending cuts could idle military resources like naval aircraft carriers, while Republicans are criticizing the president for taking his arguments outside Washington instead of staying to work out a plan before Friday's deadline. The president planned to appear Tuesday at Virginia's largest industrial employer, Newport News Shipbuilding, which would be affected by cuts to naval spending.”
(Obama will also meet with Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham about immigration today.)
At today’s event in Virginia, “The president will again call on Republicans to sign off on a new debt reduction plan, one that includes both budget cuts and higher tax revenues through the closing of loopholes and deductions,” USA Today writes.
Pew: “More continue to say Republicans in Congress (45%), rather than President Obama (32%), would be more to blame if an agreement to prevent automatic spending cuts is not reached before the deadline; 13% volunteer that they think both would be equally to blame.”
Politico sees a divide-and-conquer strategy to Obama’s approach on the sequester and Republicans: “Obama’s trying to speed this result, by releasing state by state details of the pain and suffering the sequester will cause, all meant to get Republicans to cave. And he’s got the biggest megaphone, hammering this message over and over in a way the divided Republican party cannot. Except that message could cut both ways. What if the public agrees that yes, there is a lot of pain and suffering – and turns to Obama wondering, why didn’t you do more to prevent it? That’s what makes some Democrats nervous about the White House’s supreme level of confidence.”
Charlie Cook also warns of the potential fallout for President Obama: “In the end, though, it’s not the politics that matters; it is the hardship for real people. It’s the nonelected who are the innocent collateral damage in such a partisan fight. They are the ones hurt by the standoff—people who had no say in the decisions not to reach a compromise before it is too late. And that is the group President Obama and Democrats, the 2012 election victors, should think about. How many of these people who voted for the president and his party, thinking they would be protected from gridlock, might now feel let down, concluding that maybe “all of those people in Washington are the problem”? That’s why the rather cavalier attitude that some Democratic operatives seem to have—relishing this fight, anxious to score yet another win over Republicans—could be risky. Hubris is never a good thing.”
Rigell it, just a little bit… “President Obama finally has a Republican standing with him on the sequester: Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell, who will travel with him Tuesday to Newport News, a White House official said,” per Politico. “Rigell, a former car dealer whose Hampton Roads district is thick with military personnel, told Politico last week that it was not ‘a wise position’ to demand that sequester deals that prohibit new tax revenues.”
The Virginian-Pilot: “After strongly criticizing President Barack Obama on Monday for failing to produce a written plan to avoid automatic defense cuts, U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell is expected to travel with the president this morning to Newport News.”
Obama yesterday to governors on House Republicans: "At some point, we've got to do some governing. And, certainly, we can't keep careening from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis."
As First Read has warned… “Senate action on two of President Barack Obama’s top priorities this year — gun violence and immigration — will likely be delayed until April at the earliest, as budget issues yet again consume all of Washington’s political oxygen and capital,” Roll Call writes.
AP: “Asked Monday whether there was a price tag to see the president, White House press secretary Jay Carney said emphatically that there was not. But he wouldn’t directly address reports that donors who give or raise $500,000 will be invited to quarterly meetings with Obama. ‘Administration officials routinely interact with outside advocacy organizations,’ Carney said. ‘This has been true in prior administrations and it is true in this one.’”
The Boston Globe: “Mass. congressional delegation says sequester cuts would hurt children, the elderly, and the poor.”
If anyone’s noticed a difference in President Obama in the last four years, just check out the difference in his official photos. His 2013 picture is resolute, yet smiling. In 2009, he was determinedly serious.
USA Today: “It's going to be a lot easier to tell if a recipe is pretty nutritious or a diet disaster. First lady Michelle Obama is unveiling a plan today that will flag thousands of healthy recipes that align with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's guidance for healthy eating and the MyPlate icon (choosemyplate.gov). Five media companies — Condé Nast Magazines, Hearst Magazines, Meredith, Food Network and Time Inc. with 18 cooking websites, from AllRecipes.com to FoodNetwork.com to GoodHousekeeping.com — are working with the first lady's Let's Move! (letsmove.gov) campaign to identify the MyPlate-worthy recipes. More than 3,000 recipes will be featured on a new Pinterest page.”
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The endless demagoguer-in-chief Barack Obama is coming to Virginia on his road show, campaigning, not governing. Want to see a real leader, look no further than the Governor of Virginia.
Virginia's Governor got an agreement on the long term funding of transportation, which includes tax reform
and tax increases. This has been a huge issue in traffic-clogged northern Virginia, which has been unresolved for many years.
The Wall Street Journal flatly said today the tax increase destroys the popular Governor's 2016 Presidential prospects. Red State's Erik Erickson said if you are a conservative, "McDonnell thinks you are an idiot."
Liberal Politico said, the agreement "cemented his legacy as the governor who tackled Virginia's legendarily grisly traffic problem."
National Journal had two articles saying the same thing: Obama and Boehner can learn from "Governor Ultrasound"...
"How acute is the shortage of comity, compromise, and true leadership in Washington? Bad enough that the closest example of political courage is a controversial conservative whom Democrats dubbed "Governor Ultrasound."
"[McDonnell had to ]choose between appeasing his base or leading his state. To his credit, McDonnell chose the latter. President Obama and GOP leaders in Congress ought to take note."
"In my State of the Commonwealth Address, I said we must not end this session of the General Assembly until we had fixed transportation," McDonnell said, reminding Virginia voters about another promise he made--and kept. "The bill accomplishes that."
"Virginia's GOP governor angered his base by accepting tax hikes for transportation money, but secured his legacy and won over the center..."
"I also promised that in any comprehensive plan there would have to be, by simple legislative necessity, components that not everyone would like," McDonnell said in a statement issued by his office. "That's the nature of a comprehensive piece of legislation that must pass a diverse legislature."
"Hear that, Washington?"
.... the president eventually needs to lead a stubborn Congress to actual compromise and accomplishment.
"His aides and allies will ask, "Exactly what can he do to get the GOP to deal?" That is a question best put to the president, a skilled and well-meaning leader elected to answer the toughest questions.
It is not leadership to merely blame the GOP and attack the media. That's campaigning, which shouldn't be confused with governing.
Today, "Governor Ultrasound" can speak in the past tense about a bargain. Will Obama be able to do as much?"
I see you're proud of McDonnell's war on women. To bad "Governor Ultrasound" killed his political career with this war. RIP Bob.
Per Charlie Cook, "They are the ones hurt by the standoff—people who had no say in the decisions not to reach a compromise before it is too late."
They DID have a say in voting for their congressperson. There's big potential for "buyer's remorse" in purple districts with Republican congresspeople.
If the country wants to blame someone for this mess we call congress, all you have to do is look in the mirror. As long as we keep putting these same wacko's in office nothing is going to change. Definition of insane "putting the same officials in office and expecting a different result". We've got the only tool to change congress, our vote.
President Obama needs to use the "Bully Pulpit" as Congress just isn't listening otherwise. He seemed reluctant to use it in his first term but I am so glad that he is using it now.
It seems Speaker Boehner is between a rock and a hard place. He has a party that can't seem to agree on very important issues. I personally believe he has made compromises, personally, with President Obama but has been unable to convince enough in his own party to go along with the agreements.
The sequester may turn out to be a good thing as it highlights just how inept this Congress really is and how particularly inept the leadership is. There is an old saying "no pain, no gain". We may have to suffer a little pain of the sequester but in the end we will all gain as there will be some sort of compromise that willl close loopholes and tax breaks for the extremely wealthy while making sensible cuts in spending. This is just what "Doctor" Obama ordered. The nonsense has to stop on this and every other issue.
Some liberal should tell Obama that he won the election, and is accountable for the nations's ills. Time to stop using that $180K an hour jet to campaign, and to stay in Washington to work to provide solutions.
This campaigning for results may work for a community organizer, but he's the president, and we are all paying for his failures.
The Presidents message is loud and clear
Like a fly to doo doo
You need me like a bird needs wings
Or little bunny fufu who needs to bop the field mice
So all the kids can sing
They call me El Jefe
El primo de los matadors
The master of the metaphor,
A chaw chewin' trubador
The one you've come to love and adore,
And I've come to take you away
Take you away
Take you away
Take you away
Take you away
Take you away
Take you away
I'll make you go goo goo
Like a baby that sees candy right before it's eyes
I'll kiss your little boo boo
Make it better than it's ever felt before
They call me El Jefe
El primo de los matadors
The master of the metaphor,
A chaw chewin' trubador
The one you've come to love and adore,
And I've come to take you away
I'll take you away now
I'll take you away now
Can you do the two step fleshtone slide?
Well I'll teach you
Can you do the achy breaky eyeball dance?
Well I'll teach you
Can you do the two step fleshtone slide?
Well I'll teach you
Can you do the achy breaky eyeball dance?
Well I'll teach you
They call me El Jefe
The boss and the point man
And I've come to take you away
They call me El Jefe
The boss and the hit man
And I've come to take you away