President Obama delivers his statement on Super Congress failure.
Good stuff from
President Obama following the Super Congress failure.
Blaming Republicans for the supercommittee's failure to craft a debt-cutting plan, President Barack Obama on Monday warned that he won't allow Congress to wriggle out of the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts it agreed to make if the 12-member panel failed to reach agreement.
"Already some in Congress are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts. My message to them is simple: No," Obama said during a six-minute appearance in the White House press briefing room. "I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending."
"There will be no easy off-ramps on this one," Obama vowed. "We need to keep the pressure up to compromise, not turn off the pressure."
But there's also a not-so-good part to this.
Until Republicans give ground on taxes, Mr. Obama will stay on the sidelines, aides say; he is hoping that with polls on his side, Republicans eventually will compromise in return for Democrats' agreement for savings from Medicare and Social Security. To keep the pressure on, he vowed to veto Republicans’ bill to repeal the threat of military cuts.
Social Security should not be in this mix at all. Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. At all. Which is why it wasn't included in the original White House plan. Trading away any part of Social Security for any part of the Bush tax cuts isn't only an unfair trade, because Social Security doesn't contribute to the deficit, it's a politically stupid one. Any political support gained for holding tough on raising taxes on the rich would be severely eroded by cutting Social Security, an idea Republicans, Democrats and independents hate. The same holds true for cuts to Medicare on the benefits side, and to Medicaid, as well.
Oh, and by the way, the Republican ads against Democrats who offer up those unpopular benefits cuts are just waiting in the wings. Holding tough on protecting those programs, and doing nothing to extend the Bush tax cuts, is a much more responsible policy route, and a good political idea.