GOP losing faith on sequester alternative?

The deep, across-the-board "sequester" cuts set to trigger March 1 risk devastating the U.S. economy and should be averted, both political parties have agreed, but - as several Republicans established today - not necessarily at all costs.

Arguing there are "much better ways to do these budget cuts," Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on CNN's "State of the Union" today said further tinkering with the newly minted tax rates is "off the table," and that Democrats' proposal to generate more revenue isn't going to win over the GOP.

"Let me be very clear - and I'd say this to the president as I say it to you - these spending cuts are going to go through," Barrasso said. "The American people need to know tax cuts are off the table and the Republican Party is not in any way going to trade spending cuts for a tax increase."

Congress and the White House resolved the 2011 debt ceiling drama in part by scheduling for 2012 a host of automatic spending cuts worth $1.2 trillion over 10 years, designed to be so drastic that Republicans and Democrats would be compelled in the meantime to craft an alternate, bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction. Amid the so-called "fiscal cliff" ordeal at the end of 2012, lawmakers granted themselves a two-month extension for March 1.

Two weeks out, no single substitute plan exists.

• With sequester looming, Congress takes a break
• Obama has "not given up" on averting sequester, McDonough says

Appearing on "Face the Nation," former Gov. Haley Barbour agreed the sequester is looking ever more likely to become a reality, and echoed Barrasso's case for cracking down on tax rates.

"There are a lot of Republicans that don't like parts of [the sequester], but they understand we've come to a point where we've got to take action about spending," the Mississippi Republican said. "And the Democrats say the real answer is to have 50 percent more tax increases.

"...It was the president's idea when the sequester was proposed to be put into law a couple of years ago, and there are plenty of reasons for to not want it to go into effect, particularly the defense spending," he continued. "What the Democrats want is another excuse to raise taxes. Their answer to every question is, 'raise taxes.'"

Meantime, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on "Fox News Sunday" tendered the most pro-sequester remarks yet. Qualifying that "ideally, we would have done the right thing" and pass appropriations bills to reduce spending," he said the sequester cuts aren't cuts at all, but a way to reduce the rate of inevitable spending growth.

But President Obama hasn't "given up" on coming up with an alternative to avert the current set of cuts, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough argued on "Face the Nation," and he's doing "everything he can to not let this happen." In his State of the Union address earlier this week, McDonough said, the president laid out what he's prepared to offer to avoid the cuts.

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[peter_out]

So, Egypt is broke. Obama gives (6) F-16s ($1.4 Billion) to Egypt, but he doesn't pay for them because he is broke. He borrows the money from China, and the loan is backed by the "full faith and credit of the United States."

That's Obama.

[peter_out]

Get the net 11 million jobs that have gone away back and spending should take care of itself. Restore participation to 66.6% that it was under the 5 previous Presidents. 63.6% doesn't cut it.

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

Teabaggers can't get over losing the civil war and control over Blacks. That's why they are constantly refighting the civil war with President Obama. Him as president is a painful reminder of their military, legal and moral losses.

[spacengin]

Oh, so the GOP now claims that Obama had an idea called sequestration that showed leadership as they gear up for their spin campaign. Do they expect us to forget that they voted for it and the GOP-controlled House is responsible for the budget. The economic disruption caused by sequestration is directly attributable to the GOP House and the TEA party. The GOP wanted to close tax loop holes - what happened to that? Obama wanted to make adjustments to the Medicare spending problem, why isn't the GOP negotiating on that? Obama knows that nothing happens in the GOP congress until the last minute.

When rural America are you going to wake up to the Republican/TEA party crap and send them a message? I also despise the Democrats putting the NASCAR funding into the last budget negotiations - that was revolting. But the GOP corporate give aways to the oil companies and corporate farmers is no different. No wonder that the public opinion of Congress is close to zero and yet the American voters put the same crap back into office almost every election even when they can barely walk and talk.

[davidd5063]

There is no reasoning with whiny, self-serving, lying GOP terrorist intent on throwing their fits. If you want a functioning govt, best to IGNORE everything a Fox News addict has to babble and remember how pointless reason is with the idiots in 2014.

[liblib3]

You are insane.

[nonpolitico]

Surely David, your comments are REALLY aimed at the whiny,self serving,lying Democrat apologies for politicians who,whist supposed to "serve the people" only serve themselves!
The Rating Agencies are on the brink of down rating the US Economy AGAIN!!! We already lost Triple A!!
Almost $17 TRILLION deficit and Obama wants to tax the rich and give phones to the poor.
In the 1980s, the USSR was in similar straits, with an economy that had tanked, but the Politburo just ignored it!
Seems that the Politburo has relocated to Washington, (rigged elections and votes, voting machines that registered Democrat for Republican etc.
Now a President who ignores US Law and rules, yes rules, the USA from the WH using Exec Orders!
Eventually the whole fiscal house of cards is gonna come tumbling down.And all the bluster and politicking in the world will not wish it away.
Obama has set in motion the ruin of the USA by overstepping his authority!Had this been GWB, imstead of O,all the damn media would be running lead stories night and day, not hiding the real news so as to support the new Commie Party!
How come media always gives the Right a rough ride, but never the Dems when they play Commie games with OUR Constitution!
Has USA forgotten how to deal with renegades???

[bbglow]

The Pew Center reported in April 2011 the cause of a $12.7 trillion "shift" in the debt situation "from a 2001 CBO forecast of a cumulative $2.3 trillion surplus by 2011" to the estimated $10.4 trillion public debt we actually faced in 2011. The major drivers were:

Revenue "declines due to the recession", separate from the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003: 28%
Defense spending increases: 15%
Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003: 13%
Increases in net interest: 11%
Other non-defense spending: 10%
Other tax cuts: 8%
Obama Stimulus: 6%
Medicare Part D: 2%
Other reasons: 7%

It's difficult to accept the truth when the lies are exactly what you wanted to hear.

[bbglow]

It's time to end the RNC/GOP fallacy that they are the only group capable of understanding economics and protecting the viability of the US economy.

[AttyFAM]

Treason! Rand calls for the GOP to actually make the sequester happen. Boehner sends the House home in the midst of the crisis. The GOP is actively trying to bring down the government of the USA. That is treason.

[whaas2]

The President had given speeches about how bad deficit spending is. He promised that the 2012 federal deficit would not exceed 229.27 billion dollars and missed it by more than 900 billion dollars. He has yet to offer a plan for making up for the more than 900 billion dollars his government oner spent in 2012. His stated "plan" calls for running a budget surplus by 2015. He has yet to provide any related budgetary planning that shows that his goal has even a chance of happening. I estimate that the money that the federal government is borrowing today will end up costing the tax payers more than 10 times the amount borrowed to repay over the next 170 years. As our debt continues to grow this multiplication factor grows exponentially. Our federal government's financial situation is already a nightmare and under our current President the situation is getting even worse. Our federal government needs to stop loosing money.

[nonpolitico]

WHAAS2: I totally agree.
If a small business answered an IRS tax demand by going into 10x more debt, its directors would see the inside of a Courthous and probably a Prison Cell!
Pity THAT alternative does not apply for the WHouse and all Congress!!

[sjc_1]

The U.S. government lost $600 billion in revenue after the crash of 2008, that has not come back. We spend more on military than then next 5 countries combined. We can and should cut military spending then start making corporations pay their share. Corporations used to pay 40% of the budget, now they pay 7%.

[bobw101]

Do you realize what happens when you raise corporate taxes? They pass the cost on to consumers, that's you.

[sjc_1]

They can if there is no competition. The excuse they used for decades was we need the tax breaks or we will eliminate jobs. They took the tax breaks then eliminated jobs. Time to stop the snake oil con job.

[higg187]

All I see from Obama supporters is "We Won!" "We Won!" First of all you didn't win anything. Obama and all the companies that paid for him to be president won the election. Just like how every repub that is in office won. The only real winners are the lobbiest and the real losers are the american people.

[stupa5]

alk about the lying war criminals GOP:
"It was a shock, it was a total shock-I couldn't believe the vice president was saying this," Gen. Anthony Zinni, the former commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, told me in an interview for the documentary. Zinni, who had access to the most sensitive U.S. intelligence on Iraq, was on a stage in Nashville, Tennessee, receiving an award from the Veteran of Foreign Wars on August 26, 2002, when he heard the vice president launch the opening salvo in the Bush administration's campaign to generate public support for an invasion. "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said. "There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us." Zinni, sitting right next to Cheney's lectern, says he "literally bolted" when he heard the vice president's comments. "In doing work with the CIA on Iraq WMD [weapons of mass destruction], through all the briefings I heard at Langley, I never saw one piece of credible evidence that there was an ongoing program." He recounts going to one of those CIA briefings and being struck by how thin the agency's actual knowledge of Iraqi weapons programs was. "What I was hearing [from Bush administration officials] and what I knew did not jive," Zinni says.