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Woodward Confirms Sequestration was Obama’s & Obama “Moved Goalposts”

By: alanjoelny (Diary)  |  February 22nd, 2013 at 08:39 PM  | 

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Yesterday, I wrote about Obama’s 180 degree turn from proposing the sequestration cuts and vowing to veto to keep them, to blaming Congress during the Presidential debates, to currently blaming Republicans for sequestration.

I backed up Obama’s shifting narrative to commentary from both the Washington Post and Politifact less 2- 3 weeks before Election Day, who affirmed that sequestration originated from Obama. These points were necessary to push back the blame game and temper tantrum our President in Chief is undertaking.

Today, Bob Woodward, currently the associate editor of the Post, came out today and stated that the sequestration was indeed Obama’s. Backing it up with material from his book, he then pens an important conclusion:

Why does this matter?

First, months of White House dissembling further eroded any semblance of trust between Obama and congressional Republicans. (The Republicans are by no means blameless and have had their own episodes of denial and bald-faced message management.)

Second, Lew testified during his confirmation hearing that the Republicans would not go along with new revenue in the portion of the deficit-reduction plan that became the sequester. Reinforcing Lew’s point, a senior White House official said Friday, “The sequester was an option we were forced to take because the Republicans would not do tax increases.”

In fact, the final deal reached between Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2011 included an agreement that there would be no tax increases in the sequester in exchange for what the president was insisting on: an agreement that the nation’s debt ceiling would be increased for 18 months, so Obama would not have to go through another such negotiation in 2012, when he was running for reelection.

So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts. His call for a balanced approach is reasonable, and he makes a strong case that those in the top income brackets could and should pay more. But that was not the deal he made.

With Republicans currently not budging on the sequestration cuts, they are essentially calling Obama’s bluff. They must continue to do so.

They must stand firm to 1) our President’s lies on sequestration, 2) broken trust over deals 3) no new taxes. Obama got his “revenue” during the Fiscal Cliff deal. No more. Republicans must finally take a stand on Obama’s tactics AND reigning in our nation’s spending — for the good of this great country.

Crossposted at alanjoelny.com

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COMMENTS

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  • http://www.TerriersOfTheRight.blogspot.com Flagstaff

    Fine article and thanks for the links. All of them combine to illustrate why Republicans can’t get any traction in bipartisan efforts that involve Obama, even if it benefits him and hurts them–the guy is untrustworthy.

    To mention the preliminary negotiation, the ‘grand bargain,’ we should remember that agreement was nearly reached to do far more than create the sequester bill and raise the debt ceiling. Then the President insisted on a new concession (I don’t remember for sure what it was), and John Boehner broke off negotiations saying there was no hope of agreement. This was usually reported by the MSM as Boehner’s ‘fault.’

    Forward to the sequester bill as reported by you and your links. The sequence is now agreement, implementation, and as soon as the President secured his objectives–tax rate increases in January, no debt ceiling battle before the election–a reversal of story by the President and his subsequent reneging on his agreement to drop further demands for tax increases. It seems that any deal we make with him should include a penalty clause and plenty of ‘transparency’ to make things clear. Without Bob Woodward’s book and comments, the Dem spinners would still be able to make an effective case, again, that everything is the fault of Republicans.

    Your final paragraph sums it up nicely. My own comments are at
    http://www.redstate.com/flagstaff/2013/02/23/brief-and-direct-sequestration-needs-to-happen/
    including ‘Although Republicans seem never to learn, if they hold firm here, there may be some hope left. They need to earn respect by standing by their own principles, allowing sequestration, and facing the consequences of “reduced” spending like responsible legislators.’

  • carolina

    “But that was not the deal he made”. Thank you Woodward!
    BO is so dishonorable (his word means nothing) that I completely support Boehner’s refusal to negotiate with him again. Force the Senate to pass (with record votes) the parts of the BO agenda that they like, then the House can work it’s will.

    Since the Reid Senate refuses to take up 99% of the Bills passed in the House there is no point in the House doing anything other than holding lots of hearings on govt waste and focusing on “the power of the purse” – which belongs to the House.
    The jig is up for the dem game. Maybe a few more people will realize just how worthless the dem WH & Senate have been all along.

    • http://www.alanjoelny.com alanjoelny

      I hope the “jig is up” — but we can’t let up on pushing back and exposing all that Obama says and does. We can never let up . . . because he won’t.