The hulking budget cuts now facing the Pentagon were initially pitched to Harry Reid by the White House, which saw them as a way to leverage a tax-increasing “grand bargain” from Republicans, according to Bob Woodward’s latest book. Politico reports:
The book The Price of Politics, by Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward, makes it clear the idea for the draconian spending cuts originated in the White House – and not in Congress.
According to the book, excerpts of which were obtained by POLITICO ahead of the Sept. 11 release, President Barack Obama’s top deputies believed the prospect of massive defense cuts would compel Republicans to agree to a deficit-cutting grand bargain.
Then-OMB Director Jack Lew, now the White House chief of staff, and White House Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors pitched the idea to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Woodward writes. Under the deal, which Republicans accepted after several rounds of bargaining, the federal debt ceiling was raised — staving off a potential financial crisis.
With the cuts are looming, Republicans have criticized President Obama for failing to work with Congress on a compromise to stave off sequestration. Obama, meanwhile, has blamed the GOP for getting itself into the mess, arguing last month that Republicans are trying to “wriggle out of what they agreed to do.” The president insists they must agree to tax hikes if they want to save national defense from the debilitating cuts.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is required by law to release a transparency report today detailing how sequestration would be implemented. As I reported yesterday, there’s concern on the Hill that the administration may ignore the deadline. As of 11 a.m. this morning, there’s no sign of the report.
Try "from Obama": aides may have used sequestration as a lever to get budget concessions. Obama, however, has used the budget negotiations as a lever to have a second $500 billion follow-up installment on his announced $487 billion cuts to the dastardly war machine. Think of it $1 trillion dollars of boodle to fund heaven knows how many solar powered condoms, mandated algae pools, forgiven mortgages, shovel ready bridges to somewheres or other, and pensions all around for the unions. A brave new world awaits in the second term of our President. n nCouldn't be? Au contraire. The President laid out his vision of swords into dependency in his acceptance speech: n n"I will use the money we're no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work rebuilding roads and bridges and schools and runways, because after two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it's time to do some nation building right here at home." n n
Now that Romney's tax for 20 yrs. is exposed it is only fair to ask Pres. Obama and Senator Reid to do the same. We also need to know the college transcripts of Pres. Obama because it leaves doubts in so many people's minds that he was a foreign student under the name of Barry Soetero or something else.? We need an answer to that. If politics is to be made transparent, why is the media barking at only one candidate? We the people need to know the real people that will occupy the White House without any shadow of a doubt.
We are aware how the mainstream media is so biased it makes us sick. Can't they go back to the good old days of Cronkite, when we can rely on their reports? Are they now so scared of being politically correct that news is no longer news but biased commentaries? Don't they know that they are insulting the intelligence of people, when they spin and twist things just to feed the mediocre minds? I don't watch TV anymore, I get my news on the net, and choose the nunbiased publications. Wake up America before it is too late……