Obama fibs on sequester

[William Thornton]

[William Thornton]

No comment from the "Bush lied/people died" section of BL?

[Sandy]

Woodward's opinion doesn't square with the facts.
http://www.democraticwhip.gov/content/n ... uestration

Go check the votes to see who supported the sequester. The deal that was passed was the one tweaked by Republicans, not the President, and it would not have passed without Republican support. Who's responsible? Seems like the main brainchild was Mitch McConnell, no surprise there. The GOP probably also needs to check the polls and see what the voters think, because they are about 2 to 1 blaming them which could pose a problem in 2014, as if they didn't already have a major one.

[William Thornton]

[Dave Roberts]

Seems there is plenty of blame to go around as one more effort "to kick the can down the road" again. They don't talk to each other about the needs of the country. Both parties just preach to their political base. My Congressman has sent three emails in three days blaming everybody but himself and lamenting how it will hurt this congressional district. He has not once mentioned that he voted for it.

[Sandy]

Well, with Rand Paul, kooky Mike Kelly from PA, and now Boehner running around saying the sequester will be a good thing because it is cutting spending, it's hard to blame Obama for being at the root cause of it, especially when the legislation was drafted in the House by Paul Ryan.

Here's another interesting figure. The deficit is shrinking faster than it has at any time in modern history, down by half of what it was when Obama took office. Don't believe me? Take a look at Rachel Maddow's show on Feb. 26. She documents it.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

The "half" of which she was speaking was the amount that the deficit has been reduced as a percentage of the GNP. Government spending has shrunk faster than the GNP has grown, which is the balance that needs to be achieved, and why the GOP's flat spending cuts are disproportional, and damaging to the economy.

I'm betting that there will be some GOP house members who cut and run as the sequester approaches. While I do believe there are some Republicans who really don't care whether the economy gets better or job losses will occur, because their only agenda is to make sure the corporate wealth keeps pouring into their pockets, and that the wealthy do not have to bear their fare share of the cost of providing government services, there are enough of them who are war hawks who will not let the Defense Department budget, which is the biggest, fat loaded, pork barrel in the whole government enterprise, lose money. And I think they would sell their grandmother as a slave to get that to happen, so they'll approve the President's revenue generating proposal of cutting corporate subsidies. There will be 15-20 GOP congressman who will break ranks with Boehner and go along with the President.

I think that's going to be the way most of these issues get resolved. There are between 12 and 15 Republicans in the house who are in congressional districts that the won by 1% or less of the vote, of which enough can be persuaded to go along with the President on big issues lest their constituents vote them out the next time. It will probably require ousting Boehner, at some point, but I think that will happen down the road. After all the negative attention McCain and Graham brought on themselves and the party over the Hagel nomination, there were enough Republicans who broke ranks to end the filibuster and vote him in, but not until after major political damage was done to the party.

[KeithE]

Read carefully. Power corrupts - will we ever have an honorable President?

[ET]

[William Thornton]

[KeithE]

[Stephen Fox]

Straining at a gnat

From David Brooks to Norm Ornstein Worse than it looks to the book The Servant Economy; no ifs and or butts. Its the insolent tea party that is to blame for this mess.

And the SBC is a lot to blame for how we got here.

[Stephen Fox]

Dr Thornton, you and others may want to check this public facebook wall and see how sequestration is playing in the Tea Party heartland. I am hoping ethicsdaily.com's Colin Harris will joing Bush 43 atty General who visits the region on occasion may join this heartland sequestration chat.

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.facebook.com/#!/MarcieFoster ... ment_reply

I think Marcie is a grad of Samford'sLaw school, an alma mater she shares with Billy Graham's grandson Steven Tchvidjian.