[talaniman]

Seems really clear the administration is sending a strong message to the congress to avoid another debacle caused by their inaction. The country paid dearly for the credit crisis last sumer and was downgraded in credit ratings beause congress didn't act.

Sure the public will again suffer if the congress doesn't act.Thats where my outrage is directed, at the do nothing congress, not the guy who signs it IF they do act. You forget the sequester was congress's punting the issue down the road in the first place.

You don't get congress has the ball right now, and yet again they are facing yet another deadline for action. I read the whole act and the penalties by LAW that the companies can claim.

You mean they haven't had time to solve this mess? I say they have, and should do their jobs. My outrage is they have NOT and that makes this a manufactered crisis. Self inflicted consequences we all know about will follow.

[tomder55]

The new Bob Woodward book has sort of blown that narrative out of the water .

Direct quotes from the book

"Lew and Nabors went to the Senate to meet with Reid(aka Wormtongue) and his chief of staff, David Krone. ‘We have an idea for the trigger,’ Lew said. ‘What’s the idea?’ Reid asked skeptically. ‘Sequestration.’ Reid bent down and put his head between his knees, almost as if he were going to throw up or was having a heart attack. He sat back up and looked at the ceiling. ‘A couple of weeks ago,’ he said, ‘my staff said to me that there is one more possible’ enforcement mechanism: sequestration. He said he told them, ‘Get the hell out of here. That’s insane. The White House surely will come up with a plan that will save the day. And you come to me with sequestration?’ Well, it could work, Lew and Nabors explained. What would the impact be? They would design it so that half the threatened cuts would be from the Defense Department. ‘I like that,’ Reid said. ‘That’s good. It doesn’t touch Medicaid or Medicare, does it?’ It actually does touch Medicare, they replied. ‘How does it touch Medicare?’ It depends, they said. There’s versions with 2 percent cuts, and there’s versions with 4 percent cuts.”

"Simply put, the White House and the Democrats were going to be able to sell a deal to their rank and file because of Defense cuts".


(Bob Woodward, "The Price Of Politics," )

Reid intentionally has used sequestration as a bargaining chip .

Democrats Want Leverage From Sequester : Roll Call News

The bottom line is that the President had a super committee that made recommendations ;and then he let their plan die on the shelf and his staff came up with sequestration as a ploy to force the Repubics to accept the Dem tax increase schemes.

[talaniman]

The congress doesn't make recommendations they make laws. They didn't and haven't and if sequestration was a leverage against republicans, why did republicans vote for it?

The bottom line is congress has to PRODUCE! Why do you keep trying to get away from that fact? Oh that's right, the president should do it all himself. And sequestration is a democratic plot to raise taxes.

[speechlesstx]

It has been 1253 days, 3 years, 5 months, and 4 days since the Democrat controlled Senate has passed a budget. You can't reach a budget agreement if one side won't even offer a proposal. Democrats are the ones sitting on their hands doing nothing.

[tomder55]

and if sequestration was a leverage against republicans, why did republicans vote for it?

Umm because Speaker Bonehead is kind of weak-kneed and did not want the negative press of a shutdown and the possibility of a downgrade . That's why I wouldn't become a Congressman. I have no problem with a gvt shut down.

[paraclete]

Ah Tom you are just saying that, you know that if the government stops paying, even for a short time, everything grinds to a halt, so be realistic, down grade is inevietable while ever you spend more than you collect How many trillion of debt is there now $15,000,000,000,000,000,000, $16? $17? Do you know? do you care? You have been living with credit so long you think it's normal

[talaniman]

What Tom fails to divuldge is that republicans use the deficit as an excuse to pound others over the head with.They had options to solve the problem, but solutions are not what they want. They want the power of government to enrich their financial overlords.

[smoothy]

What alternative option... Obama thinks you can get out of debt by spending like a drunk sailor on liberty.

The same people that defend Obama doing this wouldn't even consider doing it themselves in their own lives.

[tomder55]

ah Tom you are just saying that, you know that if the government stops paying, even for a short time, everything grinds to a halt

Not true . The gvt shut down twice under Reagan;once under GHW Bush ,and twice under Clintoon. It was not the end of the world .

[paraclete]

did I say it was the end of the world but goodby recovery and up go the interest rates and the deficit. The Fed may not be able to hold those low interest rates for long, you need a devaluation and you need it bad I would say $1US=RMB1=$0.20AUD would be about right. Then you could start to pay a fair price

[excon]

The same people that defend Obama doing this wouldn't even consider doing it themselves in their own lives.

Hello again, smoothy:

Nahhhh.. I thought you wingers understood business.. No, huh?

Look.. I run a business. I OWE a lot of money on it.. But, there's a new store that became available... If I borrow MORE, then I can GROW*** the pie and my CUSTOMERS will pay the loan back - NOT me.

Now, if we, as a country, INVEST in roads and bridges, infrastructure, our broadband network, high speed rail, EDUCATION, and a few other things, then our country will GROW and the investment will be paid for out of THAT success...

Look.. Investment is good. Do you own a house? Did you borrow a BUNCH of money to buy it?

excon

*** I believe Mitt Romney says the same thing..

[paraclete]

Some more arithmetic the jobs numbers have turned in favour of Obama with unemployment falling below 8%, 8% is apparently the magic number the pundits say would have kept Obama out of the White House

[talaniman]

Want more right wing fuzzy math? They thought one butt kicking debate performance by the Mittman was going to get him elected.

[paraclete]

They always think they can win with a bit of rhetoric, what else are politicians good fer

[speechlesstx]

These libs, they're an amusing lot...

Why a President Romney would have Obama to thank for an economic recovery

By Greg Ip, Published: October 5

Cast your mind forward to October 2014. The economic rebound for which Barack Obama had worked so hard and hoped so long is finally underway: Growth is humming, unemployment is steadily dropping, and the stock market is hitting one record high after another. But unfortunately for Obama, he’s not in the White House anymore — and President Mitt Romney is the man whose approval ratings are being carried aloft by the Dow.

Romney is widely considered to have won Wednesday night’s presidential debate by attacking Obama’s economic record and promising, if elected, to restore job growth and middle-class incomes. The irony is that, if Romney wins the election and the economy rebounds on his watch, much of the recovery will be due to efforts undertaken during the Obama administration.

Apparently Obama's awesomeness won't be manifest for another couple of years. So after 4 years of blaming Bush and a couple of years of Romney as prez, Obama can finally take credit for his awesome policies.

[paraclete]

Wishfull thinking