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.