"The sequester is not something that I've proposed...."

[CG6468]

"The sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed."
 
Barack Obama says Congress owns sequestration cuts

In their final debate before the election, President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney each said they would be the staunchest supporter of the military.

 Said Romney: "I will not cut our military budget by a trillion dollars, which is a combination of the budget cuts the president has, as well as the sequestration cuts. That, in my view, is making ... our future less certain and less secure."

 Obama responded by saying Romney was assigning blame in the wrong place.

 "First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen," Obama said. "The budget that we are talking about is not reducing our military spending. It is maintaining it."

 Was Obama right that he didn’t propose sequestration and that Congress did?

 The story goes back to the debt limit debate of 2011, so let’s start there.
   
Looking for a budget deal in 2011
   
 Last year, the United States government was reaching its legal debt limit, which meant Congress had to authorize a higher level for borrowing. Raising the debt limit (also called the debt ceiling) was in some ways symbolic: Congress has the power of the purse, and the decisions to spend the money had already been made.
   
 In prior administrations, Congress approved higher debt limits with some partisan sniping (including from then-Sen. Obama against President George W. Bush) but without too much fuss.

 But in the summer of 2011, House Republicans insisted that actual spending cuts go along with an increase to the debt limit. House Speaker John Boehner led negotiations with the Obama White House, and at first the two sides seemed to be moving toward a wide-ranging overhaul of the federal budget, referred to in the media as a "grand bargain."
   
 The closed-door negotiations fell apart, though, and since then journalists have been sorting through a lot of finger-pointing. Some blame Boehner for being unable to deliver his own Republicans on a deal, thanks to tea party opposition to any new taxes. Others blame Obama for his inexperience, for not cultivating relationships with congressional Republicans and for tactical mistakes at negotiating. Some blame both sides. 

 At any rate, Republicans and Democrats came to a less ambitious agreement to raise the debt limit through the Budget Control Act of 2011. The law found approximately $1.2 trillion in budget cuts spread over 10 years. But it also directed Congress to find another $1.2 trillion through a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, which came to be known as "the super-committee."
   
 The super-committee was supposed to meet and agree on a deficit reduction package by Nov. 23, 2011. Their proposal -- which could include tax increases, spending reductions or both -- would then get a filibuster-proof, up-or-down vote in Congress.
   
 As an incentive to the super-committee, the law included an unusual kind of budget threat: If the super-committee couldn’t agree on a package, or if Congress voted it down, then automatic, across-the-board cuts would go into effect, with half of those cuts hitting defense. These automatic cuts are referred to as "sequestration."

 A story in USA Today referred to sequestration as "the trigger mechanism on a budget bomb."
   
 Lo and behold, the super-committee didn’t agree on a deficit reduction package, so Congress never voted on it. Sequestration is now set to take effect with the 2013 budget.

"The sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed."

[J P Sousa]

My problem with this whole sequester was using equal dollar amounts rather than a more equitable equal PERCENTAGE .

First we have Bob Woodward’s book “The Price of Politics” that says it it was an idea that came out of the White House. Secondly, and perhaps the most important thing of all? President Obama signed all this into law. The Budget Control Act of 2011 was signed by President Obama on August 2, 2011.   

  No matter how much President Obama wants to run away and blame others on this, he signed this into law. It’s on him. I know that he likes to blame others and act like someone else has been president the last for years, but that dog won’t hunt on this. The bottom line is this, not only does a new book clearly state the idea came from his White House, he signed all this into law. Him. No one else. You made your bed, Mr. President. Now you get t sleep in it. 

http://www.therightsphere.com/2012/10/how-is-president-obama-not-responsible-for-sequestration/
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[J P Sousa]

Some stuff from Woodward's book;  (I have not read the book but it sounds intersting)

  The key issue that apparently led to the communication breakdown was Obama’s push for extra added taxes, something Boehner wasn’t prepared to give in on. When the deal had progressed along and this disagreement was evident, Obama tried to unsuccessfully reach the House speaker three times. When the president finally spoke with him him later that day and Boehner rejected the deal, the president purportedly became irate.
 
Woodward’s book claims that Obama had a “flash of pure fury.” Even Boehner admitted to the author that Obama “was spewing coals” in an incident that the book describes as being on the edge of a “presidential tirade.”
 

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/new-woodward-book-details-obamas-near-presidential-tirade-after-failed-debt-war-with-boehner-the-gop/

 
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[thundley4]

Obama said. "The budget that we are talking about is not reducing our military spending. It is maintaining it.

Yet every other time the democrats call a non-increase in spending a cut.  Hell they consider a smaller increase in proposed spending to be a cut when it comes to their pet spending bills.

Democratics lie, they lie all the time.

[DumbAss Tanker]

More Obama hair-splitting to make lies look like the truth.  Like denying there was an Apology Tour because nobody can directly quote him saying "I am so sorry America sucks."  ...Even though that was the clear meaning of the words he did use...

I am so tired of this asshole using surrogates to do all his dirty work, then parsing the words he and they used in order to avoid taking any personal responsibility for it afterwards.  You're not fooling anyone but yourself, Axelrod, and Jarrett, clown-man.  Even the minority of Democrats who aren't on public assistance or personally beholden to you for their jobs see through it.

[Freeper]

The whole damn thing was nothing but a ****ing shell game. The GOP let us down by agreeing to this shit. 0bama had no intention of cutting a dime, his goal was to use this to get his wish to finally be able to cut our military and to be able to say that he didn't do it.

I heard Rush saying today that he actually bragged about how he is going to let this happen and let the Bush tax cuts expire to some reporters.

[docstew]

The whole damn thing was nothing but a ****ing shell game. The GOP let us down by agreeing to this shit. 0bama had no intention of cutting a dime, his goal was to use this to get his wish to finally be able to cut our military and to be able to say that he didn't do it.

I heard Rush saying today that he actually bragged about how he is going to let this happen and let the Bush tax cuts expire to some reporters.

After the Super Commitee failed, as was inevitable, the HOR tried to put forth legislation to block the sequester. O said he would veto it.