Obama Warns Looming Sequester Would Devastate Economy
Source: NBC NEWS
President Barack Obama used his bully pulpit Tuesday to warn of calamitous consequences for the U.S. economy should the automatic spending cuts known as the “sequester” go into effect next Friday.
The president warned that the automatic cuts, totaling about $85 billion over the course of this year, would prompt job losses, weakened national security and canceled government services – among other consequences.
“So these cuts are not smart, they are not fair, they will hurt our economy, they will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls,” Obama said in a statement at the White House. “This is not an abstraction; people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again.”
The speech featured no new, concrete proposal from the president detailing how he would prefer for Congress to replace the sequester. Democrats in Congress released a plan last week that called for $55 billion in new revenues from closing tax loopholes and deductions, and additional cuts by $27.5 billion to each the defense and discretionary spending budgets over the course of the next decade.
Read more: http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/19/17017721-obama-warns-looming-sequester-would-devastate-economy?lite
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Vattel
(9,289 posts)I hope his optimistic view that the cuts would not actually be made was warranted. Otherwise he is gonna look pretty bad.
denverbill
(11,489 posts)If they had simply raised the debt ceiling, like they have does dozens of times previously, the sequestration scenario would never have existed. Republicans could have also avoided sequestration by agreeing to a 50/50 mix of tax increases to spending cuts, a 'compromise'. They refused even a 20/80 mix of tax increases.
Blaming Obama is like blaming the hostage for going along with their kidnapper.
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)Had the ability to end hostage taking. Instead, they lined all the hostages up and gave them back to the GOP.
denverbill
(11,489 posts)The hostage negotiator didn't cause the problem.
Vattel
(9,289 posts)denverbill
(11,489 posts)You seriously think the hostage negotiator is more responsible for the fate of the hostages than the criminal?
I'm no more than 5 miles from the site of the Columbine massacre (and the Aurora theater massacre for that matter). The police response to Columbine was pretty widely criticized, but nobody in their right minds thinks the police deserve more blame for Columbine than the two killers.
And anyone who thinks that Obama's response to the Teabaggers' hostage-taking is the problem, not the Teabaggers holding the debt-ceiling hostage, is sadly (or conveniently) misplacing the blame.
Vattel
(9,289 posts)
Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)parents proposing to pay a ransom to the people who are holding their child. Remember, the Republicans were at that point crazy enough to drive the country into default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling limit (for the first time in history). But I think people are getting wise to the Republican strategy of screw the middle-class and the poor just so the 1% gets richer.
And they are also getting wise to the Republican 'plan' to let the Democrats propose a solution and then just flatly state 'no, that plan is a total non-starter - try again', without the Republicans ever coming up with a plan of their own - other than 'shrink the government down to where we can throw it out with the bathwater' - get rid of SS, Medicare, Medicaid, public schools, the Post Office, etc.
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)EastKYLiberal
(429 posts)John2
(2,730 posts)and media want people to do but they shouldn't go for it. The problem with the United States is this extremist Republican Party led mostly by certain males in the South. The sooner these racists are gotten rid of in Government the better the U.S. will be off. The persons needed to lose their jobs are the rightwingers in Congress. Putting the power to govern in deranged hands is a mistake, that people in those Red Districts will regrett. This is a divided nation. Something has to give and I think it has to be the Republican Party. Maybe we should go after the War criminals in the Republican Party. It should not be us this time but them. The Republican Party can kiss my behind!
Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)However, the Republicans (and the country) are suffering from the law of unintended consequences. The R's have managed to gerrymander themselves enough 'safe' seats that they don't have to worry about losing the House, at least for awhile. The problem is that in doing so, they have managed to make those seats Tea-Party seats and the voters in those districts are the most radical voters of the whole electorate. These congresscritters don't have to worry about losing their seat to a Democrat. Instead, they have to worry about a serious primary challenge if they aren't radical enough. So they have to more farther and farther to the right in order to keep their seats. They really don't give a damn about what the country wants or needs, they just need to be radical enough to keep their radical district happy.
John2
(2,730 posts)and who voted for whom speaks volumes. President Obama won the Northeast, Midwest and the Western part of this country. The only region he did not win the popular vote was in the South. That is where most of these extremists politicians come from. Why should those Politicians dictate Policies for the rest of this country? The President won among most ethnic groups except one. That is why I believe this is more about race than anything else. I don't know about some people, but I'm getting fed up with the racism from the Republican Party. I think it is about time we be upfront and call it what it is. That political Party is just intolerant. That is this country's problem. Before we can do anythingelse, we need to solve the problem of racism first. The Civil War didn't really settle the problem. Some people in this country think they are better than others based on skin color.
Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)Hopefully, as these angry old white men stop voting, the Republican Party will be able to begin to regain its sanity.
southern_belle
(1,647 posts)Vattel
(9,289 posts)In my opinion, Obama's proposal was a bad idea, but it was the Republicans who created the crisis that led to the proposal.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)As long as you keep playing their game you are going to lose.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)The Rethugs figure they're in a win-win position with the sequester. They know there's more than enough fat in the military budget to cut it, and they get the domestic cuts as a bonus, if they do nothing. Of course, if they can force the President into cutting something else (on his own initiative) the folks who suffer from that cut can blame him for throwing them under the bus. The best game they play is divide and conquer.
I heard this story on the radio on the way home, and it doesn't seem like the President is keeping a poker face as we approach this thing.
Berlum
(7,044 posts)Now they damn well mean to bring American to its knees.
msongs
(67,413 posts)
bamacrat
(3,867 posts)Can the President not issue an executive order at least delaying this? May not be in his power, but if it is he needs to act.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)I suspect he can claim a threat to national security and block the legislation.
bamacrat
(3,867 posts)Kinda like defaulting on the debt, he has a Constitutional obligation to make sure the country does not falter. The right will paint it as dictatorial, but anyone with half a brain will realize he has no choice if Congress will not act.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)... as I stated in another thread, we have enough military shit stockpiled around the world that we could cease military funding indefinitely and still have enough to blow up the planet several times over.
We aren't even close to going back to the Valley Forge days, Mr. President, Sir, so please stop with the scare tactics.
What we won't have, at some point, is the money to pay the troops. Garage sale, anyone?
EastKYLiberal
(429 posts)And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)I don't think the average American has the first clue how much shit we have stockpiled, and POTUS speaking in these terms makes it sound like at midnight, on March 1, the barn door will be left open and all the ooga-booga terraists will come flooding into the US and kill us all in our sleep.
That's just not responsible Presidentin', in my opinion.
davidthegnome
(2,983 posts)From my limited understanding, there will be cuts to military spending, education, what little infrastructure we have left. Jobs will be lost, people who received federal assistance will lose it? Just, the scale of such a thing, the overall impact, is rather mind boggling. Are we talking about yet another recession? Or something worse? My understanding of economics is rather vague.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
jzodda
(2,124 posts)As Bush used to say over and over "elections have consequences."
So why make people who are not in agreement on how these cuts are to take place suffer for it? Let the tea party and their supporters suffer. Essentially then make the south and west PAY for their support of these extremists. Only when the cuts start to effect their people personally will they then start to realize the insanity of their positions.
Make them pay!
bucolic_frolic
(43,173 posts)injecting that into the banking system and the mortgage system.
So we're supposed to worry about $85 Billion a YEAR?
I still think it's a bit overblown.