Obama: I Will Veto Attempts To Get Rid Of Automatic Spending Cuts

[onehandle]

Source: Forbes

President Barack Obama gave a press conference after the Supercommittee officially admitted it failed to reach an agreement to cut $1.2 trillion in budget spending over the next 10 years. Obama told reporters he would veto any attempt to get rid of the automatic cuts which are set to kick in as a part of the sequester proposition, which will be triggered unless Congress reaches over the next year.

Asking Congress to “work with a scalpel, not with a hatchet,” President Obama sought to provide the people, and markets, with a little hope. Despite the Supercommittee failing to agree on spending cuts for $1.2 trillion, Obama noted there’s still a year before automatic cuts kick in.

The sequester proposition, which will trigger $1.2 trillion in cuts in defense and domestic spending, in equal parts, will kick in if Congress doesn’t get its act together over the next 12 months, the President said. Obama had his game face on, and took on Republicans asking them to work as hard to defend tax cuts to small businesses and middle class Americans as they did to defend tax cuts for the rich.

Threatening a veto, Obama asked Congress to reach a bi-partisan solution that would put the country’s debt situation on a sustainable path to recovery. “I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts,” said Obama from the White House’s briefing room, adding “the only way to get rid of those cuts is to get Congress to come together and work on a deal.”

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/11/21/obama-i-will-veto-attempts-to-get-rid-of-automatic-spending-cuts/?feed=rss_home

[Akoto]

1. Confusing headline is confusing.

Is he saying that, since the committee failed, he wants the trigger cuts to go through and will veto any attempt to stop them?

[OhioChick]

3. That's the way I understood him, while listening.. n/t

[woo me with science]

4. What he promised is that deep cuts will still be made in the worst economy since the Depression.

He promised to veto any attempt to remove the mandate to cut.

He did not say that it has to happen the way it is supposed to happen now, with 50 percent of cuts in Defense. In fact, he specifically reassured that there is plenty of time to "find" money to meet the mandate before this goes into effect in a year.

They will not have to account for any of cuts they approve until AFTER the 2012 election.

You can bank on full funding of the Military Industrial Complex.

[reggie the dog]

18. and yet we are supposed to cheer for him

we can call w a dick on here but i guess we have to praise obama???

i voted for the guy and i cant criticize him now on this site???

[woo me with science]

19. These thieves in Washington are nothing if not politically savvy.

They will starve the economy and the American people and win praise from some for doing it.

[reggie the dog]

21. the stupid hurts

[christx30]

55. Super glad

we put these people in charge of health care.

[No Elephants]

62. That is my prediction as well. Defense will get the money, one way or another.

You can tell by what Panetta said about the defense cuts going to troops' salaries and the country not being safe.

Panetta works for Obama (and atill has his job), so he was not speaking out of school.

[krucial]

6. Super comitee

I think thats what he meant.He will veto nay attempts by republicans to dilute or stop the automatic cuts.Republicans are sweating bullets because that would mean also cutting the funds for our never ending wars and and the military Industrial complex and defense companies,and stop them not stop,but slow them down a little,from rollin in the dough for a while,which they have been rolling in since the so called and fake excuse about,war on terror $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[davidwparker]

12. +1

Good reason to pull the rest of the troops out from all around the world ... we simply cannot afford to be the world's policemen.

I hope by this time next year, we are celebrating the USA handing the (R)'s their as*es in Nov 2012.

[julian09]

46. NO, Obama is saying that now that the super committee failed

REPUGS want to Change the trigger to have less of an impact on the defense budget. That would mean bigger cuts for entitlements. He wants Gop to come up with the minimum 1.2 trillion in balanced cuts and revenue by end of year, so the big cuts to defense won't have to happen. He is not willing to have congress to lessen the outcome of trigger; if the
repugs want lesser cuts to defense, they must come up with the 1.2 trillion. If they don't defense loses 500 billions through the trigger as it stands now. If they try to lessen the 500 billion to 200 billion he will veto that. That extra 300 billion less would have to come from entitlements.

[No Elephants]

61. These are the cuts Obama wanted to go through if the Super Committee failed.

Rahm Emanueul called them the "insurance policy" Obama put in the deal re: the Super Committee.

Obama wanted to make sure cuts went through, even if the Committee failed.

The headline is not confusing at all.

[woo me with science]

2. What he promised is that deep cuts will still be made in the worst economy since the Depression.

He did not say that the cuts would have to include the 50 percent in Defense cuts that are mandated by the current trigger. He specifically pointed out that there is a full year before this has to take effect and plenty of time to "find" money before the deadline.

They will not have to account for any of cuts they approve until AFTER the 2012 election.

You can bank on full funding of the Military Industrial Complex.

[Enrique]

5. call them what they are: cheaters

they made the deal, they got 98% of what they wanted, and now they're cheating on what they agreed to. Fucking cheaters.

edited to replace ethnic slur, which I didn't even know it was! Sorry!

[unblock]

8. is it really necessary to use a racial epithet? three times in one short post?

yeah, i know, not many people from wales around here, but that doesn't make it cool.

[provis99]

54. I know! Someone call the paddy wagon!

Put him in the paddy wagon! Yes, the paddy wagon!

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[onehandle]

9. The GOP is trying to keep the social cuts and save the cuts to the military.

The President is working within 'the deal.' The GOP is trying to cheat.

[reggie the dog]

16. the deal???

so if he got a bill in front of him balencing the bugdet on rasing taxes on the rich with no public spending cuts he wouldnt do it????? because of a deal with the republicans?????

[No Elephants]

64. These are HIS cuts. Please see Reply 61.

[lamp_shade]

10. ??

[savalez]

11. Good. Because Pubs are going to try

and block defense cuts.

[Faygo Kid]

13. Here's a link. I like the cut of his jib on this one.

". . . the president said his answer to those who want to eliminate those cuts “is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off-ramps on this one.”

http://www.nationaljournal.com//supercommittee/obama-i-will-veto-any-effort-to-undo-automatic-cuts-20111121

[freshwest]

17. Very good, thanks for the link.

[freshwest]

14. I found this, is this what you mean about links? It's AP:

https://twitter.com/#!/AP

[freshwest]

15. A glance at automatic spending cuts from 2013... List at this link:

A glance at automatic spending cuts from 2013

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2011/11/21/glance-automatic-spending-cuts-from/YxTFlSNTpmy6dOA04GgFKI/story.html

[Robbins]

20. Automatic cuts

These I can live with.There were a lot of needed programs not Included In Automatic cuts.While medicare will be somewhat effected there will be defense cuts to offset
these.

The big story here Is Democrats didn't just give In to Republicans.I was afaird Baucus was going to go with Republicans and we would have cuts to Medicare,SS,medicaid
and no defense cuts or rasing taxes on the Rich.

[freshwest]

30. The world's a tiny bit brighter. Those exemptions will save lives.

[sofa king]

33. They couldn't give in.

The automatic triggers were the starting line. Unless Congress advanced the President's own agenda (the triggers are his plan), it didn't matter if there was bipartisan approval. The President would simply reject it.

The Republicans never even met the starting line, as it was widely assumed they would not, because they aren't very good with numbers.

Now, however, the worm has turned, for if the Republicans want all that fat corporate military-industrial campaign cash, they've got to roll over for President Obama, in an election year.

That's the eleven-dimensional chess game none of those chumps believed they were playing. And now they've been ass-raped. I mean, "mated."

[MilesColtrane]

42. Yep, somebody is 5 to 6 moves ahead of you, Boehner.

[freshwest]

47. Wow, the resemblance is uncanny! Thanks.

[julian09]

48. Glad he listened to me

I said a while back, he should VETO ant bill that tried to subvert the trigger in its original form.

[freshwest]

27. NOTE: The most worried about programs are EXEMPT, despite all the RW M$M hysteria. See this:

From the Boston Globe article above:

—Mandatory programs that are exempt from sequestration, or cuts, include Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, the CHIP children’s’ health program, child nutrition, Supplemental Security Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, veterans’ benefits and federal retirement.

—Veterans’ medical care and Pell grants would also be exempt from cuts to Congress-approved, discretionary programs.

[DCBob]

22. This is good and a much better option than what the supercommittee would have come up with.

The best part are the major cuts to the military industrial complex!

[russspeakeasy]

28. Major cuts to the military are NOT going to happen.

If they even consider it, we will find a network of spies here and abroad...WMD'S everywhere....a commie behind every rock...damned hippies out to destroy the U.S. There will be no cut to the fucking military budget.

[DCBob]

31. I suspect you were one of those who insisted the supercommitte would cut social programs to shreads.

and not touch the military. Wrong then.. probably wrong now.

[russspeakeasy]

34. No, I was one of those who said this committee was a crock of shit

and wouldn't do a damn thing. There are some channels that have "real"
professional wrestling and I don't watch them either, but I can predict the outcome...

[DCBob]

35. Lets see how this plays out.. I suspect this will not be as bad ad you are thinking.

I think the President has the upper hand at the moment.

[russspeakeasy]

36. I will be very happy to be wrong.

:shrug:

[totodeinhere]

40. Right. The military industrial complex will never allow it regardless of what anyone says now.

n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. Important:

"—Mandatory programs that are exempt from sequestration, or cuts, include Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, the CHIP children’s’ health program, child nutrition, Supplemental Security Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, veterans’ benefits and federal retirement.

—Veterans’ medical care and Pell grants would also be exempt from cuts to Congress-approved, discretionary programs."

------SNIP-----

This was really a strong hand for the Dems. They gave up some cuts for sure, but they really had two ways to prevail: get big tax increases through the debt panel, or have the debt panel fail. They really had very little incentive to agree to GOP demands, since the sequestration hurts the GOP more than the Dems.

[Faygo Kid]

24. +1

[russspeakeasy]

25. More linguistic gymnastics..

Too little,too late for my vote Mr. O.

[and-justice-for-all]

26. Are the pentagon budget cuts not worth it??

1.2T in defense spending sounds great to me, even when there are cuts being made elsewhere.

[yurbud]

29. nothing is more important than protecting the rich from tax increases...

[freshwest]

32. If the Koches don't fund another teabagger influx in Congress, the Bush Tax Cuts expire.

That's the reason the astroturf party was created, to extend those past the sunset date. They got away with because people stayed home. Stay home again, and they will do it again. The Dems stood up on this one and I'm relieved.

[msongs]

37. obama approved their extension, thus postponing the positive outcomes of allowing expiration nt

[bhikkhu]

44. Only after the GOP ate our lunch in the midterms and took congress

...at which point it the compromise that was reached wasn't such a bad deal, as it was the only way to gain an extension of unemployment benefits.

[No Elephants]

66. The Obama tax cuts were voted in by the same Congress as existed before the midterm.

[bhikkhu]

72. Only after the GOP ate out lunch in the midterms

Which put them in a very strong position as far as negotiating any compromises - and they were well aware that ending the unemployment insurance was exactly the sort of thing they got elected on, and would have tanked the economy even worse.

[sofa king]

49. Unless automatic reelection and flipping the House counts...

...as a positive outcome. Because that issue is going to be the major campaign issue of 2012, and any further extension of the cuts will be vetoed. With the one exception below.

Just to make it fun, the Senate will be sure to split the next tax cut extension into two votes, one for the rich, and one for everyone else, at a nice comfy time like late spring of next year, so that all the voters pay attention.

The Republicans will have the unpleasant choices of holding the middle class cuts hostage by filibustering (electoral suicide), voting against both bills (also suicide), voting for one but not the other (also suicide, either with the voters or their financial benefactors), killing them both through political maneuvering (also suicide) or voting for both and watching the President sign the one for the middle class and veto the one for the rich. Just like the deficit committee, there's no way for the Republicans to win unless they play ball. And they won't.

Letting tax cuts for the wealthy expire is an issue 70% of the voters support, most of them strongly. The next election is going to be a total blowout, and there is no way in hell the Republicans can stop it now. Not legally, anyway.

[totodeinhere]

71. I wish I were as optimistic as you. But I am not. The Democrats too often seem able

to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I hope it doesn't happen this time but we will see.

[No Elephants]

65. The Koch Brothers began planning the Tea Party in the 1980s, well before Dummya.

[bluedigger]

38. If the Rs want to drown government in the bathtub, they need to get their hands wet.

They have the election year to do it. Jedi Obama is back.:thumbsup:

[totodeinhere]

39. I continue to believe that somehow or another those defense cuts will never see the light of day.

I'm not sure how it will all play out exactly. And excuse me for being cynical. I am not necessarily doubting Obama's sincerity on this matter, but I just don't think that the military industrial complex will allow it to happen.

[Vattel]

41. Hardly surprising.

The trigger was not really a trigger because there is still a year before the "triggered cuts" would be made. Thus, Congress has another year to screw us, and I predict that they will. I would love to see 600 billion in defense cuts, but I sincerely doubt that I will. Medicare will be cut for sure, foreign aid including treating and preventing AIDS in Africa will almost certainly be cut, Social Security will probably be cut. The Democrats on the Supercommittee already offered severe cuts to medicare benefits. Ironically it is only Republican intransience that has thus far prevented the Democrats from screwing us.

My hope is that the Republicans are so crazy that no deal can be reached and so the triggered cuts become a reality. But I doubt that we will be that lucky.

[tcaudilllg]

45. During that year we need to be making Dem meetings so hostile that the slice'n'dicers

don't even ask to be re-elected.

[No Elephants]

67. I wish you luck getting Obama and the DNC to buy into that plan.

[tcaudilllg]

73. Who said anything about Obama and the DNC?

This is about the future of the party, not the past.

[Old Codger]

43. The whole thing

Is entirely manufactured to give them something to talk about for the next year that has nothing to do with job creation, they now have another excuse to ignore the real problems facing us and spend the next year pointing fingers at each other.

[sendero]

50. If he had said that 2-3 weeks ago..

.. it might have spurred a more serious attempt by the doucher committee. Now, it is pointless. Obama has an annoying habit of too little too late, in fact he's downright gifted with it.

[MilesColtrane]

52. You make the assumption that Obama really wanted this committee to agree on a deal.

I happen to believe that he knew no deal would be forthcoming when he negotiated the resulting triggered cuts back in July.

[sendero]

53. For 3 years..

... I've been hearing about the 3 dimensional chess. But Obama has not won a single game yet. Call me when he does.

[savalez]

57. All things considered this is a win.

[sendero]

69. This game is not over..

... if the sequester actually happens to the pentagon, then you can claim victory. If I were you, I would not hold my breath.

[savalez]

74. Because of that

leverage has shifted. We'll just have to see how it plays out.

But make no mistake, nothing's been good since 2010 when stupid voters fell for the same old RW bullshit and gave control of the house to cry baby boehner - the worst house leader in history.

[alcibiades_mystery]

59. He won this one, genius

GOP gets to eat big defense cuts that they voted for, with no cuts to the social programs listed above. Get a clue.

[sendero]

68. You get a clue.

... the sequester will never happen. Man the naivete around here is astounding.

[alcibiades_mystery]

70. Yeah, sure

When Obama obviously wins one, kick it down the road and predict catastrophe. Sad.

[sendero]

76. Bookmark this page..

.. I am. Obama has won nothing.

[DallasNE]

51. Obama Was Not A Happy Camper

I'm sure Republicans will complain that Obama talked down to them. What else could they expect given their childish behavior where they acted like a 3-year old at the checkout counter that has grabbed a candy bar. Obama's body language as he left the podium will also be discussed at length at places like Fox news. But who can blame Obama for his disdain for Republican intransigeance.

[lonestarnot]

56. Good! Now hang them by their balls.

[cstanleytech]

58. Good, he should veto anything that tries to get rid of the cuts

and let the republicans hanging in the wind and have the voters take it out on them come election time for being such complete and utter assholes.

[Lorien]

60. The entire exercise is completely asinine

there was no reason whatsoever to tie any cuts to raising the debt ceiling limit. NEVER forget that! Raise taxes on millionaires if your want to borrow less!

[quakerboy]

63. Can you get it through congress?

Apparently raising taxes on millionaires cannot get through congress, even at the cost of military spending.

The domestic cuts are going to suck. Bad. Probably even be directly responsible for some deaths. Of course, the military cuts might just save some lives.

But the fact that the R's universally refuse to raise taxes on a millionaire, even with a massive scarey hammer overhead, even when D's are willing to shoot their own foot to make a deal, makes a hell of a campaign platform for Dems to run on. And if enough of them run on it, maybe they will actually deliver it if they manage to take/keep both houses and the presidency.

[Laelth]

75. Unwise. Very unwise. n/t

-Laelth