XPost: dc.urban-planning, wa.politics   
   From: impeach_obama@yahoo.com   
      
   House Speaker John Boehner had a simple message Wednesday for   
   President Obama after he used the bully pulpit to blame   
   Republicans for the "meat cleaver" of looming spending cuts: You   
   created it, you fix it.   
      
   "Having first proposed and demanded the sequester, it would make   
   sense that the president lead the effort to replace it," Boehner   
   wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.   
      
   The "sequester" is the Washington word for the $85 billion in   
   2013 spending cuts set to hit starting March 1, with more than   
   $1 trillion in cuts on tap over the next decade. Boehner and   
   Obama both agree that the federal budget needs that level of   
   deficit reduction and more, but sharply disagree over how to   
   achieve it. In the absence of any compromise, the set of   
   indiscriminate cuts which would hit the military hardest are set   
   to take hold in less than two weeks.   
      
   The president on Tuesday, surrounded by first responders who are   
   among those who would see cutbacks, called on House Republicans   
   to drop their resistance to tax increases and steer the country   
   away from the budget "meat cleaver."   
      
   But Boehner reminded Obama that the automatic cut idea was   
   originally proffered by the White House during the debt-ceiling   
   talks of 2011. He said Congress "reluctantly accepted the   
   president's demand" and claimed it's now up to Obama to find the   
   escape hatch.   
      
   "So, as the president's outrage about the sequester grows in   
   coming days, Republicans have a simple response: Mr. President,   
   we agree that your sequester is bad policy. What spending are   
   you willing to cut to replace it?" Boehner asked.   
      
   White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer rejected what   
   he described as "revisionist history." The White House   
   acknowledges the "sequester" came from their office, but argues   
   that Congress was on board at the time. The original plan was to   
   tee up cuts so Draconian that Congress would be compelled to   
   strike a deal to replace them -- Congress, though, failed to do   
   so.   
      
   While Boehner blames Democratic resistance to spending and   
   entitlement cuts, Obama blames GOP resistance to closing tax   
   loopholes.   
      
   "(Obama) is willing to make tough choices. Now it's time for the   
   speaker to do the same. The speaker has yet to name one tax   
   loophole he's willing to close. Not one," Pfeiffer said.   
      
   The back-and-forth was further evidence that the two sides are   
   drifting further apart as the deadline nears, and that chances   
   of a deal in the near-term are fading.   
      
   The president spoke Tuesday at the White House, urging Congress   
   to come up with a short-term fix to cancel sweeping cuts to   
   defense and other programs set to hit March 1.   
      
   "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. "This is not an abstraction --   
   people will lose their jobs."   
      
   The president ticked off a host of expected repercussions should   
   the $85 billion in cuts for this year take effect. He said   
   Border Patrol, emergency responders, FBI agents, airport   
   controllers and others would all face cutbacks. He said teachers   
   would be laid off by the thousands and America's military would   
   be degraded.   
      
   But Congress is out for the week, effectively leaving one more   
   workweek to reach a deal, or a stopgap, before the deadline.   
      
   Shortly before he spoke, Obama was also dealt a blunt warning by   
   former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, who co-chaired the   
   president's deficit-reduction commission.   
      
   Simpson warned that Obama "will have a failed presidency" unless   
   he deals "honestly" with entitlements, saying programs like   
   Medicare and Social Security must be dealt with in order to get   
   the country on a sustainable path.   
      
   "If he wants to leave it alone and not deal with those two   
   biggies, forget the rest of the stuff -- he'll have a failed   
   presidency," Simpson told Fox News.   
      
   While Obama says opposition to tax hikes is holding up a deal,   
   Republicans say Democrats' resistance to major changes to   
   entitlements are a big part of the problem.   
      
   Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the former co-chairmen of the   
   president's deficit-reduction commission who for years have been   
   urging Washington to stop kicking the can, got in front of the   
   president early Tuesday morning to push a plan of their own.   
      
   The two fiscal hawks pitched a plan to avert the looming   
   spending cuts -- heavy cuts to defense and other programs that   
   they describe as "abrupt" and "mindless" -- and instead enact a   
   $2.4 trillion deficit reduction plan over 10 years.   
      
   A quarter would come from changes to health care spending, a   
   quarter would come from closing tax loopholes and the rest would   
   come from spending reductions including a stingier adjustment of   
   Social Security's cost of living increases.   
      
   On tax reform, the plan presents a middle ground -- by using the   
   savings from closing loopholes to both lower rates and bring   
   down the deficit. By contrast, Obama has pushed to use that   
   savings mostly to reduce the deficit, while Republicans have   
   pushed to use it to bring down rates.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/20/boehner-to-obama-   
   created-spending-cut-crisis-fix-it/   
      
   --   
   Are you obligated as an armed civilian, to defend unarmed   
   liberals while you are both under fire by foreign agents of the   
   outlaw Obama administration?   
      
   No.  Shoot the liberals immediately so they can't stab you in   
   the back while you are defending yourself, then return a   
   controlled rate of aimed fire.       
      
          
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)