There are many, many examples of the complete distortion and silliness among the mainstream media these days, but few have the clear evidence as the question of who was really responsible for the concept of the sequester.
The question arises because, as the sequester cuts are about to go into effect, liberals are trying to find any excuse imaginable not to lay the blame for this mess at the feet of the President. The most recent attempt was a slide from a Powerpoint presentation by Speaker John Boehner, that mentioned the sequester on July 31, 2011. Andrew Sullivan, the Nation, Mother Jones, TPM…even MSNBC all ran with this story. And it is, in fact, true…Boehner did mention it at that time.
So, what is the real history on the sequester? Well, the GOP put together a nice ad on the subject:
The problem with the progressive media’s time line is that Obama actually brought up the sequester in the Spring of 2011. He raised it early in the debate, long before this Powerpoint presentation was made.
Don’t believe me, don’t believe the GOP ad? Fair enough. How about Bob Woodward, liberal icon? [video in the link]
CHRIS WALLACE, “FOX NEWS SUNDAY” HOST: Bob, as the man who literally wrote the book about the budget battle, put this to rest. Whose idea was the sequester, and did you ever think that we’d actually get to this point?
BOB WOODWARD: First, it was the White House. It was Obama and Jack Lew and Rob Nabors who went to the Democratic Leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, and said, ‘this is the solution.’ But everyone has their fingerprints on this. (FOX News Sunday, February 17, 2013)
Well, o.k.. Maybe you think Bob Woodward is untrustworthy. Fair enough.
How about the Obama White House itself? Here is Jay Carney, Communications Director, admitting that the sequester idea originated in the West Wing? [video in the link].
JAY CARNEY: What I will concede is that we were looking and the Republicans were looking for a trigger around which to build a mechanism to get us out of default possibility and the sequester was one of the idea put forward, yes by the president’s team. (Special Report, February 12, 2013)
Now, lets say you think Jay Carney is a liar. Fine, that is reasonable. But then, why did Mr. Obama, during the midst of last year’s election, promise to uphold the sequester cuts, and railed against Congress for thinking otherwise?
Obama was for the sequester cuts…before he was against it.
The media’s outright distortion and stupidity on this issue is quite staggering, even for the a left wing agenda that has been complicit in hiding truth after truth from the American people.
The most you can say about the sequester is that Obama didn’t want to solve anything when the debt ceiling was hit in 2011. Fine, that is an honest assessment. But the sequester, as a plan, was put forward by the President and his staff. Republicans would have preferred straight forward cuts (as they, on several occasions, proposed, and the House of Representatives even passed on three different occasions). To now blame the GOP for a plan they never passed before Obama suggested it is ludicrous.
The irony here is we have video evidence that the President was fighting to put the sequester cuts into place last fall. We have his Communications director, not to mention a respected liberal reporter, both stating that the sequester plan originated in the White House. And the media is still trying to blame the GOP for this mess.
Mendacity, indeed.
This was crossposted at the Spitcracker Picayune
[...] This was cross posted at Neoavatara. [...]