Obama Demands Sequester Delay
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama urged Congress to delay the looming sequester by passing legislation to “replace at least some of the $85 billion in automatic spending cuts set to hit the government on March 1.”
“If they can’t get a bigger package done by the time the sequester is scheduled to go into effect, then I believe they should at least pass a smaller package,” Obama said. “There is no reason that the jobs of thousands of Americans who work in national security or education or clean energy — not to mention the growth of the entire economy — should be put in jeopardy.”
As The Hill noted, “Obama offered no concrete plan on how to replace the cuts, but warned that if Congress allowed them to go forward, it would hurt the economy.”
“We have seen the effects that political dysfunction can have,” said Obama. “It will cost us jobs and hurt our economy.” On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office “estimated that allowing the sequestration cuts to go forward would lead to a 0.7 percent decline in the growth of gross domestic product this year.”
The Bipartisan Policy Institute and defense firms have warned the cuts could cost the nation at least 1 million jobs.
Further, Commerce Department last week determined that “reductions in defense spending led to a 0.1 percent contraction in the economy at the end of last year.”
The sequester, as Bob Woodward reported, originated in the White House during the 2011 debt ceiling negotiations, as Obama and his advisers tried to use it as a political tool to gain concessions from Republicans.
From → Budget, Economics, Fauxbama, Barack Hussein, Sequestration
Publius Prime 
Repubs ought to hammer Obamacon’s total lack of leadership on the economy. Trumpet how many budgets they’ve proposed which have been rejected by the Senate Dems. Demand a balanced budget. No more spending without proportional cuts somewhere else. The credit card is maxed!
He made the bed, make him sleep in it.
The only ones that would get hurt are the ones that voted for him “the handouts” from us the taxpayers…let it rip…..
Obama’s in no position to ‘demand’ anything. Republicans don’t need to do a thing other than tell him to STFU. He came up with this idea, he needs to take the consequences. And Republicans can spend their time reminding the public that they passed several budgets that Obama and Reid simply ignored.