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Spending cut debate casts pall over Obama's second-term agenda
Reuters and Yahoo News ^ | 2 Mar 13 | Jeff Mason and Matt Spetalnick

Posted on 03/03/2013 5:01:07 AM PST by SkyPilot

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just hours after across-the-board spending cuts officially took effect, President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Saturday to work with him on a compromise to halt a fiscal crisis that threatens the economy and his broader domestic policy agenda.

The failure by Obama and Republicans to agree to halt the $85 billion 'sequester' cuts virtually guaranteed that fiscal issues would remain center stage in Washington for weeks, crowding out Obama's proposals to reform immigration, tighten gun laws and raise the minimum wage.

The economic effects of the spending cuts may take time to kick in, but political blowback has already begun and is hitting Obama as well as congressional Republicans.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Friday showed neither Republicans on one side nor Obama and his fellow Democrats escaping blame.

Obama's approval rating dropped to 47 percent in a Gallup poll on Friday, down from 51 percent in the previous three-day period measured.

While most polls show voters blame Republicans primarily for the fiscal mess, Obama could see himself associated with the worst effects of sequestration like the looming furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

He signed an order on Friday night that started putting the cuts into effect.

In his weekly radio address, Obama appealed for Republicans to work with Democrats on a deal, saying Americans were weary of seeing Washington "careen from one manufactured crisis to another."

But he offered no new ideas to resolve the recurring fiscal fights, and there was no immediate sign of any negotiations.

"There's a caucus of common sense (in Congress)," Obama said in his address. "And I'm going to keep reaching out to them to fix this for good."

(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; obama; sequester; sequestration
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Both sides better realize that the Sequester is not in the country's best interest - and therefore it is not in their political interests either (which they think is the only thing that is important).

I just read that unemployment checks will be cut by 10%.

Wait until people figure this out.

Sequester cuts get real for unemployed Americans

The children we have in power better get this resolved - with NO MORE "CLIFFS" like the next one we have approaching in just 24 days now.

We are going to crush 2 million jobs, layoff hundreds of thousands of people, gut the Defense Dept, and there will be 3rd and 4th order effects of this that have not even been realized yet.

Here is what both sides should do: Accept the lastest Simpson-Bowles plan that has a combination of real Entitlement reform with tax reform, and be done with it. Both sides can take political cover by pointing to the plan.

Even the Canadians (of both parties) are telling American politicians they have gone insane.

1 posted on 03/03/2013 5:01:23 AM PST by SkyPilot
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To: SkyPilot

“$2.4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/03/02/2697829/robert-l-bixby-simpson-bowles.html#storylink=cpy

Isn’t going to fix the spending problem. It’s much worse than that.


2 posted on 03/03/2013 5:10:27 AM PST by MulberryDraw (That which cannot be paid, won't be paid.)
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To: SkyPilot

It’s time the government feels the pain that the private sector has felt the past 5 years. They are not entitled to employment any more than private sector employees are.


3 posted on 03/03/2013 5:12:36 AM PST by txrefugee
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To: SkyPilot

Another debt ceiling increase debate about to start.


4 posted on 03/03/2013 5:14:09 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: SkyPilot
...crowding out Obama's proposals to reform immigration, tighten gun laws and raise the minimum wage.

Thanks for pointing out the upside!

Obama has used all of these and more as shiny objects to distract the American people and, more importantly, the media from the fiscal disaster he is creating.

Nothing gets done until the nation gets a sustainable budget!

5 posted on 03/03/2013 5:14:17 AM PST by Aevery_Freeman (They say "Right Wing" but they mean "Wrong Wing"!)
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To: SkyPilot
...crowding out Obama's proposals to reform immigration, tighten gun laws and raise the minimum wage.

Thanks for pointing out the upside!

Obama has used all of these and more as shiny objects to distract the American people and, more importantly, the media from the fiscal disaster he is creating.

Nothing gets done until the nation gets a sustainable budget!

6 posted on 03/03/2013 5:14:17 AM PST by Aevery_Freeman (They say "Right Wing" but they mean "Wrong Wing"!)
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To: SkyPilot

“We are going to crush 2 million jobs, layoff hundreds of thousands of people, gut the Defense Dept, and there will be 3rd and 4th order effects of this that have not even been realized yet.”

More Obama Talking points from SkyPilot on the sequester.

Only you and Obama seem to think that this minor reduction in budget to DoD warrants such a hysterical response.

“gut the Defense Dept” indeed.


7 posted on 03/03/2013 5:20:22 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: SkyPilot

Just watched the sequester piece on NBC Sunday Today and mostly the typical farce. Peter Alexander’s story included half a dozen tweets condemning the government for not settling the issue and cutting services to the folks. Not a one pointing out the farce that it all is. Then Lester Holt parroting Obama’s previous dire predictions-he must not have been watching Friday-in a discussion with David Gregory. When he asks Gregory if we the people could get this done by pressuring the politicians Gregory starts stuttering and almost chokes as he has to admit Obama put on the full PR press on this leading up to this week and it failed.


8 posted on 03/03/2013 5:22:37 AM PST by John W (Viva Cristo Rey!)
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To: SkyPilot

$44 billion cut in the rate of growth? Not a big deal, unless you’re Barack Hussein Obama, doing the same thing Hitler did to the Jews, Stalin did to the Kulaks, and Castro did to Batista- blame some outside entity for his own destruction...this time it’s the Republicans (and like the Jews, Kulaks, and Batista, the GOP seems helpless to fight him).


9 posted on 03/03/2013 5:32:45 AM PST by MuttTheHoople (Pray for Joe Biden- Proverbs 29:9)
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To: RFEngineer
Only you and Obama seem to think that this minor reduction in budget to DoD warrants such a hysterical response.

And all five 4-star Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs (I even sent you the PDF link to the actual letter - you ignorned it), and Rep "Buck" McKeon (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Senate Armed Service member Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sen John McCain (R-AZ), and Rep Jon Runyan (R-NJ), member of the House Armed Services Committe, and anyone else who still has their sanity.


Sequestration will cost 2.14 million jobs, study says


10 posted on 03/03/2013 5:33:22 AM PST by SkyPilot
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To: SkyPilot

“And all five 4-star Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs (I even sent you the PDF link to the actual letter - you ignorned it), and Rep “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Senate Armed Service member Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sen John McCain (R-AZ), and Rep Jon Runyan (R-NJ), member of the House Armed Services Committe, and anyone else who still has their sanity.”

Whatever. In the end, the cuts are minor, and the budget for DoD still well exceeds $500B. So these guys can say whatever they wish, but they exhibit the “can’t do” attitude of everyone who depends on government.

What you never answer (and I don’t blame you for ignoring it) is what CAN we do for $500B to defend the country, since a minor reduction results in catastrophe, according to you, Obama, and the JCS?


11 posted on 03/03/2013 5:40:33 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: SkyPilot

Look on the bright side: as long as they keep squabbling and pointing fingers over this sequester mess they made, Obama won’t have time to force any more of his irrational, counterproductive policies on us. And that’s a good thing. At least they’ll leave us alone for a while.


12 posted on 03/03/2013 5:42:00 AM PST by jespasinthru (Proud member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.)
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To: SkyPilot
"Both sides better realize that the Sequester is not in the country's best interest - and therefore it is not in their political interests either (which they think is the only thing that is important)."

The way Obama is executing the sequester is not in the best interests of the country! I'd start with cutting the Kobe beef, $300 White house wine, million dollar golf outings and General's Gulfstream Vs as well as the thousands of redundant and ineffective government programs. Paychecks were cut by 2% on January 1 with the increase in payroll taxes, and people are somehow managing. Obama can't? I thought he was always the smartest guy in the room. Too bad he didn't learn anything in 3rd grade arithmetic class.

* Reference: PJ O'Rourke's Circumcision Precept (O'R.C.P.): "You can take 10% off the top of anything" and and nobody will notice much if any difference.

13 posted on 03/03/2013 5:50:05 AM PST by Sooth2222 ("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)
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To: SkyPilot
And here's an analysis by people who are sober rather than hysterical:

http://www.cato.org/blog/sequestration-will-not-make-united-states-less-safe Even with the sequester our DOD is still spending more than China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea combined.

14 posted on 03/03/2013 5:52:49 AM PST by Sirius Lee (All that is required for evil to advance is for government to do "something")
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To: SkyPilot
I just read that unemployment checks will be cut by 10%.

Many employed people have had to take far in excess of a 10% cut just to keep their jobs. Or else they were pink slipped and had to find other jobs that don't pay as much as their previous ones did.

People in the real world have had to adjust to the "new normal". People in the bizarro world of government employment or government entitlements have been, by and large, exempt from the "new normal". That's why they voted for Obama - to keep themselves insulated from reality.

15 posted on 03/03/2013 6:21:19 AM PST by randita
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: SkyPilot
The Republicans will cave on the debt ceiling.

If they don't hold the House, it's officially over.

17 posted on 03/03/2013 6:39:08 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: hunosehu
The weak in this country will not realize that they've been had until after it is a done deal.

The weak in this country, the vaunted 47% who rely on the Democrat's Federal leviathan for sustenance, will believe that it was the evil Republican's who killed their golden goose. Even in their death throws, they will fight any argument that opposes their view of a perpetual utopian society that was promised by the likes of Maxine Waters and her ilk.

18 posted on 03/03/2013 6:43:09 AM PST by Thommas (The snout of the camel is in the tent..)
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To: jespasinthru
Look on the bright side: as long as they keep squabbling and pointing fingers over this sequester mess they made, Obama won’t have time to force any more of his irrational, counterproductive policies on us. And that’s a good thing. At least they’ll leave us alone for a while.

The Republicans have a golden opportunity to capitalize on Obama's hysterical rhetoric.

When Obama tries this again, with the debate over the debt limit, Republicans can counter with,

"Where have we heard this before?"

"This kind of chicken-little rhetoric isn't helpful."

"Obama said this about the sequester, and the sky didn't fall."

"There he goes again, with his 'sky is falling!' rhetoric."

Pick one, or make up your own.

But it's moot, because the RINOs will cave.

19 posted on 03/03/2013 6:49:01 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: SkyPilot
I just read that unemployment checks will be cut by 10%.

Maybe it will start to wake folks up about how bad the Obama/Democrats trashed the economy and the people with it. Many folks (me included) have lost ground over the last few years with stagnant pay and rising costs. I'm also among the "evil government employees" and will see a 12%-15% drop in take-home pay this year due to the sequestration. I still feel that the sequestration is better than having the Repubs cave and allow the Dims to raise taxes because whenever they do that, they raise spending even more so they can cry about how the People need to give and sacrifice "just a little bit more for the common good".

20 posted on 03/03/2013 7:08:09 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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