Obama exaggerating impact of sequester, GOP senator says

President Obama is "absolutely" crying wolf on how drastically Americans will be impacted if the deep, across-the-board cuts known as the "sequester" go into effect at the end of this week, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said today on "Fox News Sunday."

Asked whether the president has been exaggerating in his recent speeches across the country sounding the alarm for the losses in jobs, education programs and transportation services, among a host of other things, the country will suffer if the axe is brought down March 1, Coburn said definitively yes: "There are easy ways to cut this money that the American people will never feel," he said.

"The crisis is made up - it's been created," Coburn continued. "We see all these claims about what a tragedy it's going to be. The great example is, is if the secretary of transportation can assure us all the planes are going to be safe, then the Department of Homeland Security can assure us that we can get through the airports on time. They have plenty of flexibility in terms of discretion on how they spend money."

• Who's responsible for the sequester?
• LaHood: Time for GOP to "wake up" to avoid "calamity" at airports

Though he said he didn't support the cuts, scheduled during the debt ceiling debate in 2011, because "that's a stupid way to cut spending," Coburn said sequestration may be "the only way Washington, Republicans and Democrats are ever going to get out of both parties some spending cuts." The president's idea to replace the sequester with a package that balances spending cuts and revenue through tax hikes, he said, is a "straw man" setup.

"Look - the federal government is twice the size it was 11 years ago," he said. "What sequestration is, it's a terrible way to cut spending - I don't disagree with that. But to not cut 2.5 percent out of the total budget over a year when it's twice the size it was 10 years ago? Give me a break."

Meanwhile on CNN's "State of the Union," Coburn's colleague, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he was calling Mr. Obama's bluff on another sequestration point.

"The president said during the campaign: Won't happen," McCain said of the sequester. "I said during the campaign, and so did others say: We've got to stop this from happening. The president has now said it was Congress's fault. We know the president wasn't telling the truth about that."

Political journalism veteran Bob Woodward reported in the Washington Post on Saturday that the idea for the sequester - hatched amid Capitol Hill's 2011 gridlock over the debt ceiling - originated in the White House. Mr. Obama "personally approved" the plan to send to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Woodward wrote.

McCain said he "won't put all the blame on the president" for getting to the 11th hour without having reached a bipartisan alternative to the sequester. But he did offer a reprimand for a member of the administration who suggested the fault lies with Republicans.

"Shame on Ray LaHood," McCain said of the transportation secretary. LaHood, a former Republican congressman, said earlier on the show: "My audience is trying to persuade my former colleagues that they need to come to the table with a proposal, which might be they haven't done. While the president has, the Republicans haven't."

[Donnie_G]

Asking who is responsible for the sequester simply shows just how dysfunctional our federal government has become. There's plenty of blame to go around, and no one side can lay claim to having a moral or ethical advantage over the other. The bottom line is that both sides in this dispute agreed to the terms of the sequester specifically because it would be equally as painful for them both, and that's a good thing. No pain no gain! If it takes swallowing this bitter pill to undo the current state of gridlock in government and bring both sides back to a middle ground of compromise, then so be it. Let the sequester happen.

[whaas2]

It is the Obama administration that came up with the idea of the sequestor in the first place and Obama signed it into law. The President said that he would veto any attempt by congress to get around it. It is suppose to be the Preisdent's "plan" for the federal government to start running surpluses by 2015. The President needs to release the financial details as to how this can be accomplished and how the sequester fits in to all of this. The President previously promised that the 2012 federal deficit would not exceed 229.27 billion dollars and his administration ended up over spending by more than 900 billion dollars. He has yet to tell the people how he is going to make this money up.

[Democrat_Gone_Independent]

Obama is an exagerrator and liar using fear monging to have his way.
Another lefty messiah of Doom and Gloom and the a Chicken Little with cries of the sky is falling.
Everyting will work out like the last fiscal crisis in the end.
We need to spend as we go along to get the national debt under some form of control.

What will soon sink the economy is if the unemployment rate continues to rise, the GNP comes in again at 0.1 again and when the stock market, the Dow 14,000 bubble bursts even if the Fed keeps printing and pumping money into it and we have a big correction in the market. The Fed has been holding down interest rates the same way but that too will end and when they go back up, a double dip recession will hit.
This is what Obama should be warning us about and start working with Congress to avert instead of playing who blinks first.

[AttyFAM]

Maybe Obama came up with the idea, but it was on the basis of the idea that Republicans were not so sick as to prefer to destroy the country rather than modify their ideology. That was a rational premise. But Republicans have proved themselves far, far more irrational than anyone ever imagined, and yes, they will gladly destroy the country as long as they are faithful to their ideology.

[TimeToEvolve]

The GOP are all a bunch of well paid, well bribed Wall Street corporate puppets. What do they care about the government of, by and for the people? They will still have their bribes at the end of the day.

[Mike239239]

These are the same republican congressmen that were claiming victory when the sequester was passed and were outraged because obama said he would veto the sequester if it was sent to his office as is.

[peter_out]

Furlough is the word of the day. Of course the President prefers not to furlough air traffic controllers because it would interfere with his private golf lessons in Florida.

The President would continue to borrow Chinese funds so that the air traffic controllers can be paid.

The President hasn't the guts to raise taxes on American tax payers to pay the salaries of the air traffic controllers.

Obama is an "essential person". Therefore, it is important that we continue to borrow from China to pay for air traffic controllers so that there will be no interference with Obama's $187,000 plane trips to his $10,000 golf lessons with Tiger Woods.

[2013VIEWER]

DC is all about drama, this is nothing new. Most of these cuts will not happen right away but over future months.

[CarsonCitySteve]

What silly arguements! If the government hadn't grown so unweildingly big, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. This is what happens when you put too much power and faith in a single institution, into too few individuals. It is time to end this disaster, not grow it.

I once said, "We will bury you," and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you.
- Nikita Khrushchev

[zmonkee]

GOP-R--Con-Men says: "Yet those who have benefited the most from America want to contribute the least to her"


Now.....are you talking about the Americans who get everything for free from the government and contribute nothing? OR the successful who put a lot at risk to start up a business, and now pay a boatload in taxes?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't taxes just go up on the successful? (as well as everyone else who has a job, per the payroll tax)

[zmonkee]

you are correct, on the point of raising the taxes--

and those things you mention do get taxed....but it's a bit ridiculous how much you lefties want to keep increasing it-

Also, if you go to Sears the day AFTER the sale, that is like trying to pay last years tax rates, this year-- so your point is not valid-

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

Corporations, big oil, big pharma and the super rich have done extremely well since Republican President Reagan opened the treasury to them. Yet those who have benefited the most from America want to contribute the least to her. An t the GOP = Greedy Obstinate Predators makes sure the 99 percent continue to live off crumbs while they feast.

Remember republicans will not allow corporations, big oil and the super rich to lose any of their subsidies or tax loop holes. Some are but not limited to...the 4 billion dollars a year congress gives big oil in subsidies. Does anybody think big oil needs or deserves 4 billion dollars a year in taxpayer money when they are the most profitable business in the world?

Republicans refuse to eliminate tax loop holes for corporations while gives them taxpayer money for moving jobs overseas and creating jobs over there. Does this make sense to any rational person?

Those are but a few examples of why the treasury is not being replenished but being drained by republicans and their quid pro quo contributors.

[bobw101]

What loop holes and how are they receiving taxpayer money? Please be specific, because if companies are getting taxpayer money and special tax breaks for shipping jobs to China I am calling both Senators and my congress woman, this is an outrage.