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SAVE THE DATE

Obama to Meet With Congressional Leaders On Sequester Deadline Day

News reports say it will be the first such meeting about the spending cuts

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by Lisa Fine

Staff Writer t

Image: AP

President Obama will meet with Congressional leaders on Friday, the day the $85 billion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as the "sequester" are set to kick in, news reports say.

Obama invited the top four congressional leaders -- House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- to the White House for the last minute discussion.

It's the first time the president will meet with Republican leaders about the sequester. By law, the White House must issue an order initiating the cuts some time on March 1, according to ABC News.

"The meeting Friday is an opportunity for us to visit with the President about how we can all keep our commitment to reduce Washington spending," McConnell said in a statement.

The timing of the meeting has raised eyebrows.

"Either someone needs to buy the White House a calendar, or this is just a - belated - farce," a senior Congressional Republican told CNN. "They ought to at least pretend to try."

Via ABC News and CNN
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Comments (view in Forum)

  • Knightkore
    !
    Same tune, different year/month/day....

    Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results....

    Time to do something different....let the sequester happen....
  • AntiPorcheria
    !
    This is an awesome article from AP, Calvin Woodward, 22 hours ago.

    "...There's a whiff of the familiar in all the foreboding, harking back to the mid-1990s partial government shutdown, when officials said old people would go hungry, illegal immigrants would have the run of the of the land and veterans would go without meds. It didn't happen."

    SPIN METER: A Dubious List of Budget 'Horribles'

    http://news.yahoo.com/spin-meter-dubious-list...
  • jessejaymes
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    @AntiPorcheria It's not going to happen this time either. There is enough pork and corruption in every govt department to handle 100 sequesters.
  • AntiPorcheria
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    @jessejaymes - Is it only me, or does this governmental hostage taking offend everyone else? Why do we still elect all these asshats?
  • jessejaymes
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    @AntiPorcheria I haven't voted for a Democrat or Republican in 12 years now. I'd rather vote for Kim Khardashian than I would the two parties and I wouldn't get near KK with a four hundred foot pole.
  • PNWest
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    Does anyone really think that the GOP is going to come out of this whole fiasco looking good? My advice to the GOP - fold already. You know that eventually you are going to fold like a cheap lawn chair and Obama will win. Do it now and at least look like you compromised for the good of the country. That's better for you than trashing the economy and pissing people off and then folding. Then Boehner can get back to the tanning salon and McConnell can go back to whatever it is that turtles do.
  • PNWest
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    @BossTweed Obama has a 52% approval rating. Congress has about 12%. Who do you think the American people will side with?
  • o
    NTBFW
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    I don't think either side will come out of this looking good. At this point I wouldn't fold. Call Obama's bluff. We have to cut spending. I don't like this method. But at least it's a spending cut. I have seen this script before.
    Obama knows we have to cut spending.
    He knows his base doesn't.
    Gin up a crisis
    Blame it on the republicans.
    Swoop in at the last minute to save the day.
    Get spending cuts
    Blame it on republicans
    Wait a year and brag how well you cut spending.
  • u
    BossTweed
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    @PNWest I said TRUST not approve. Zombies are easily manipulated and easily impressed. The 52% have a deep and mindless emotional attachment to the photo op President. Whether he leaves us in better shape of worse shape is not even on their radar.
  • PNWest
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    @NTBFW You are correct that neither side will look good. Obama's approval rating will certainly go down but polls have shown that the GOP will receive the bulk of the blame. Obama can do as you say if the republicans refuse to compromise and it will be the GOP who suffers in 2014. Or as I said in my initial post the GOP can fold now and make the best out of a bad situation. The GOP went for this sequester crap only because they believed that they would be in power now. A truly stupid bet. They can compound the damage by letting the sequester occur or compromise, lick their wounds and regroup. Whatever. I'm not a republican so I hope they damage themselves as much as possible.

  • View all 39 replies >

  • bsking
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    It is absolutely sickening for the media to make a big deal out of this after Obama has been out on the campaign be moaning the perils of sequester... and now it's a big deal because he's offered to meet with the Republicans for the first time according to the article.

    Obama is a putz.
    Why didn't he meet with them today after the Rosa Parks ceremony?

    I said a long time ago this sequester is all theater.. political terrorism by Obama because he thinks he can blame the Republicans for the pain that is coming because of his failed policies. recent stories are emerging of Democrats worried of a potential backlash. that is more likely the reason he will meet after the deadline passes of course.
  • harold_lloyd
    !
    Nasrudin was caught in the act and sentenced to die. Hauled up before the king, he was asked by the Royal Presence: "Is there any reason at all why I shouldn't have your head off right now?" To which he replied: "Oh, King, live forever! Know that I, the mullah Nasrudin, am the greatest teacher in your kingdom, and it would surely be a waste to kill such a great teacher. So skilled am I that I could even teach your favorite horse to sing, given a year to work on it." The king was amused, and said: "Very well then, you move into the stable immediately, and if the horse isn't singing a year from now, we'll think of something interesting to do with you."
    As he was returning to his cell to pick up his spare rags, his cellmate remonstrated with him: "Now that was really stupid. You know you can't teach that horse to sing, no matter how long you try." Nasrudin's response: "Not at all. I have a year now that I didn't have before. And a lot of things can happen in a year. The king might die. The horse might die. I might die.

    "And, who knows? Maybe the horse will sing."
  • Tralee
    !
    Good old Obama, always ready for a photo op. Other than that, this is just show, he has no intention of owning this sequester or the remedy for it. He has the power right now to be flexible on where the "cuts" go and won't do it. He's spent 4 years not owning anything, making sure his name is not associated with anything but Obamacare, he's done exactly as he did in Chicago and in the Senate, he's voting "Present". No Blame Obama makes sure that he can point a finger at someone else, he just forgot that when one points a finger at someone else, there are still FOUR fingers pointed at themselves.
  • DARSB
    !
    Solving this will avoid needless financial chaos and is an opportunity to begin to change the perception that Congress is irreversibly dysfunctional. I don't think that will be the outcome, but it is a potential turning point.

    I think the problem is Speaker Boehner hasn't got the votes in the House for any deal. If a deal is brokered today and the Speaker takes it to the House but it fails to pass it may be the beginning of the end of his tenure as Speaker.
  • rainpebble
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    @FollowTheMoney-totally agree. For over two hundred years Congress managed to pass a budget, if not always on friendly bipartisan terms, then at least on somewhat civil ones. The current situation is ridiculous. An embarrassment to our country and the system of government. When stuff like this happens, we need a neutral third party to take and do a "government budget" makeover that pisses everyone but the taxpayer off and makes sense.
  • u
    BossTweed
    !
    Releasing thousands of convicted felon illegals from Prison TODAY and NOT DEPORTING them is very Obama. His family has 24 hr secret service protection so why should he care about your families safety? Pitiful.
  • miketost
    !
    The fool should of been there a month ago.This entire sequester situation is all part of the kings plan.He could care less for whats good for America his last 4 years have shown that.I should refer to him not as a fool but as a master of deception much like other world leaders of the past have been shown in history.
  • u
    BelinKS
    !
    From the moment Obama told Bonher he would not sign anything that did not have exactly what he wanted after Bonher had worked and ran his butt off to get the compromise that the democrats and republicans agreed they would both vote for; I knew Obama was going to throw the American citizens under the bus! What do you die hard Obama voters think of him now? They are trying to cast the blame on republicans, that's simply not true! Bonher had achieved what he was sent out to do and he accomplished a bill that both REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS agreed to. Obama is at fault! How many times does it take for a president that ignores the constitution and does what he wants to be impeached?
  • AlexMIA
    !
    Simple truth! Government will never care how or how much of your money they spend because it is just that, your money! Government employment is always going to equal a voter base to the party that is in favor of government expansion.
  • JustTheFacts
    !
    $85 billion in cuts yet a trillion of debt being created per year ... are you kidding me ... what a joke! Axe the department of Education and Agriculture ... that would be a good start because both are totally useless! Look at the salaries these jackass's pay themselves ... it's no damn wonder were going broke!
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