Posted on 03/01/2013 8:14:52 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Sequestration: White House summit begins By: Jake Sherman March 1, 2013 10:49 AM EST
The nations top four lawmakers arrived at the White House Friday morning, pessimistic they will be able to resolve the impasse over $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts that begin at midnight.
The meeting began at 10:18 just a smidge more than 12 hours before the sequester was scheduled to begin.
This fiscal dilemma has played out differently from the previous ones in the sense that the chief players Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) have not met at all throughout it. There have been virtually no negotiations between the White House and Congress, as both sides have fiercely clung to their starting points Obama has insisted that a solution include a balance of spending cuts and new revenues, while Boehner has dismissed any tax hikes out of hand.
And with the sequester set to hit at 11:59 pm. on Friday night, not much is expected to happen at the White House meeting Friday morning. Republicans even said as much before the meeting happened.
The mood on this gray Friday was encapsulated before the meeting by Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican leader of the Senate.
There will be no last-minute, back-room deal and absolutely no agreement to increase taxes, McConnell said in a statement, adding that he was happy to discuss other options to reduce spending.
Thats precisely where the disagreement lies. Boehner and McConnell are opposed to Obamas plan to close what the president describes as tax loopholes to help offset the cuts, which will disproportionally hit the Pentagon and other military spending. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) favor raising more revenue to blunt the cuts.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
WRONG Boehner said revenue had already been address when Sequestration was agreed upon.
I lay down at night wondering what will happen first the economic collapse or the next world war...It’s a tough call but in the end.... What difference does it make?
Shouldn’t they have done this a few weeks ago? I mean, I’m just sayin.......
"Limiting deductions and closing loopholes" = tax hikes = more money taken from the private sector and handed over to the Democrats for their use in buying the votes of their government-addicted base of moochers.
So no, we are not "for them".
Let it hit already. And then when Americans see it is MEANINGLESS, perhaps they will want some MORE cuts! DO. NOT. CAVE!
“They should all be furloughed...... “
Furlough doesn’t solve anything, they should all be FIRED!!!!
Mentally they have been furloughed for years.
"What difference does it make?"
Wonder which flavor Boehner's is? McConnell's?
Your post proves you are FOR Obama’s plan , you are for boner to cave in to Obama .
imo you are a democrat/statist
‘Politico to media:
Obama wants to compromise between the Senate which wants “new revenues” (note: “tax increases” is a forbidden term. Mention of the tax increases Obama just got in the “Fiscal Cliff” deal is also forbidden.) and the House which only wants to make cuts that will hurt everyone- especially the poor and the young and minorities and women and LGBT.
Only a few conservatives in the House refuse to compromise.
Hail Spending!
That is all.’
boner and mconel still have a few hours to cave in to Obama. I think they will cave . I hope I’m wrong though
At the last minute they will avert the news media’s latest fake “disaster” ( the sequester).
what was it last month the fake fiscal cliff? global warming (another hoax) etc.
Sorry, but the big bad sequester isn't going to 'cut' a single dime of federal spending.
This entire ruckus is over a mere 2% reduction in the rate of INCREASE of projected federal spending. No one in the country is going to feel its impact. All this talk of furloughing gov't workers, cutting military spending, catastrophic effects to existing entitlement programs, etcetera, is just a huge stinking pile of obama.
The federal government is going to spend more next year than they did this year - just like every year since Hector was a pup. The poor dears in Washington are only going to get 98% of the raise they were expecting for their departments and agencies.
Oh my! The world will end!!!
are you counting in inflation too, or do you have all the calculations done for all the government too?
to keep the same size government has to increase by the inflation rate. if it doesn’t then it is a cut.
sequester is a good thing. let it happen.
without sequester gov growth will be what 20% next year? yes
so GOP and boner must not cave ( let the cuts happen)
All I hear is government will be cut in a lot of places. If government will be cut ANYWhwere with this sequester then that is the first time and it is the a good thing.
boner and mconel still have a few hours to cave in to Obama. I think they will cave . I hope Im wrong though
My point is that if they cave, this whole thing is sinister. There is no “in the light of day” reason for them to do so. It means the reasons are nefarious. It means the whole “d’s vs r’s” think is a facade. Our perceptions are completely wrong and the conspiracy theorists are closer to the truth than those that believe in the system. It means the system is a ploy.
If the r’s cave, I will never vote again. It means it is pointless. It is manipulated to benefit those not me. Or you.
If the R’s cave, the mask is finally and completely removed.
If they don’t cave, the more apparently sane explanations are the rule of the day.
We’ll see which it is.
imo you are a democrat/statist
Your opinion means squat.
You're buying into the left's definition of a 'cut'. That is precisely the redefinition of language which has given Congress the cover to expand the size of the feral government for generations now. Career leftists like Obama have used this trick for decades to fool the American people into supporting their advance of Socialism.
If you were expecting a dollar an hour pay raise, and you only got a .98 cents an hour raise, it would be the same thing as the so-called sequester. Are you telling me that .16 cents a day is going to be a catastrophic hit to your personal economy? I highly doubt it.
Friend, our government is already vastly overfunded. Congress could freeze funding levels at their current levels and there would be no noticeable effect for years to come, besides the wailing and gnashing of teeth on Capitol Hill and in the media, and perhaps a gradual slimming down of federal departments and agencies.
You cannot have limited government as envisioned by the Framers, with the federal government taking as big a bite out of the GDP as it is today. You do realize the government now takes more out of the GDP than it did during the second world war, do you not? Look it up. That rate of increase has outpaced inflation.
The last four years have convinced me that your statement is absolute fact. Besides a very few upstanding notables in Congress, the entire federal institution is nothing more than a treasonous cabal, gorging themselves in a depraved orgy of blood sucking at the jugular of the American people.
As far as I'm concerned, talking endlessly of political solutions is a pointless and fruitless exercise in Hope & Change. The Constitution is just a dusty old relic of ages past, and is no longer considered the Supreme Law of the land by the traitors who infest the halls of power in Washington.
I've just about given up on participating in the rigged game we call national politics. It's a festering sewer of depravity that cannot be defeated or cleaned up by 'working within the system'. The whole thing needs to be emptied out from top to bottom before we'll see any measurable change in the direction of this country. There's only one way that I can see to do that, and I honestly believe it's coming.
The last four years have convinced me that your statement is absolute fact.
I’ve said it is probably true, but if they cave, I will be with you strongly regarding that sentiment.
It will change how I live my life.
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