The sequester is here.
DETAILS: End Of The Road! Sequester Expected To Take Effect In 1 Day!
Today, at an appearance in the White House briefing room, President Barack Obama told Americans that he’s done everything in his power to avoid the sequester, $85 billion in spending cuts, that is set to take effect tonight.
“I can make the best possible argument. And I can offer concessions and I can offer compromise. I can negotiate. I can make sure that my party is willing to compromise and is not being ideological or thinking about these just in terms of political terms. And I think I’ve done that, and I will continue to do that,” he said. “But what I can’t do is force Congress to do the right thing.”
He also called the sequester dumb, unnecessary and inexcusable.
“At a time when our business has finally begun to get some traction, hiring new workers, and bringing jobs back to America, we shouldn’t be making dumb, arbitrary cuts to things that businesses depend on and workers depend on like education and research and infrastructure and defense,” Obama said. “It’s unnecessary, and at a time when too many Americans are still looking for work, it’s inexcusable.”
Putting the blame squarely on Republicans, the President assured the American people that not everyone would feel the pain right away…but “the pain would be real.” When asked by CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin why President Obama can’t simply lock congressional leaders in a room until they reach a deficit-reduction agreement, the President said he can’t “force Congress to do the right thing.”
“Jessica, I am not a dictator, I’m the President,” he said while speaking to reporters in the White House Press Briefing Room. “Ultimately, if Mitch McConnell or John Boehner say we need to go to catch a plane, I can’t have Secret Service block the doorway.”
And what about the president’s “Jedi-Mind” comments?
“I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow, you know, do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s righ.”
To get his point across the White House released a meme that is sure to go viral on the internet.
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Welp! Looks like we need to buckle our seatbelts, because this sequester thing is really happening. Check out the video to see what else Obama had to say about the forced budget cuts.
VIDEO SOURCE: CBS
