Monday, February 25, 2013

GOP on the Sequestration: All mouth, no spine, no memory, no integrity

Like Obamacare, aka Romneycare, the right pushes ideas, and then tries to blame the current administration for them. The most recent example is the right trying to blame the failures of THEIR sequester legislation on Obama; it was NOT his idea - it was their idea, and they bragged about it. Now, like Romneycare, they are trying to run away from it. It is almost a rule of thumb that if the right doesn't like ir, after they previously supported something, they are more worried about success for Obama's administration, they are worried about dodging responsibility. Conservatives form the party of cowards and liars, and failing to take responsibility.

The right are cowards, and the right are liars.

from Slate: John Boehner's 2011 PowerPoint Touting the Sequester

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, leaves after a news briefing Feb. 14, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.A weird thing has opened up in Washington where now the big point of emphasis among congressional Republicans is to say that the looming budget sequester that Republicans voted for is "Obama's sequester" and that he is in some sense to blame for it. That's about 85 percent bullshit, depending on exactly how you mean it. John Avlon at the Daily Beast has a good piece of relevant evidence: the PowerPoint slides Boehner used back in 2011 to explain to his caucus how awesome the debt ceiling deal that had been struck by the president was.
Here's the opener:
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And here's the specific slide on the sequester:
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In essence, Democrats tries to put pressure on the GOP to temper its anti-tax fervor as the only way to avoid big defense cuts, but it turned out—and then turned out again on the supercommittee, and then turned out again during the fiscal cliff deal—that their view on taxes trumps everything else. That's on them.read more here
PoliticusUSA noted it was an idea strongly supported by right-winger Paul Ryan, going back to 2004 - LONG BEFORE OBAMA supported the idea, and Ryan continued to support it in the current iteration.
paul-ryan-sadRepresentative(and failed VP nominee) Paul Ryan (R-WI) can tell you all about how great sequestration is. Why, he’s been a fan since 2004. Not just a fan — he’s pushed sequestration as the solution, as good governance, since 2004. When he finally got it in 2011, he bragged about it to Fox News. Oh, the conservatives finally got it, he told Sean Hannity! The holy grail of economic discipline is here! WOO HOO!
Ryan explained, “We want to make it very difficult for Congress to avoid this budget discipline.”
Now that it’s here, though, Paul Ryan no likey the sequester anymore. Budget discipline bad.

Not to be left out, we have Eric Cantor caught flip flopping on sequestration as well, by VirginiaPolitifact.com, where he lied about his role in promoting and passing the Sequester, as House Majority Leader.  Their conclusion? A complete flip flop. Cantor has been caught in a full on lie.

UH OH! Busted!
Congress was faced with a stark choice in August 2011: Either agree to a deal that could trigger the sequester or place the nation in default. Cantor chose the deal. As we have written before, it is possible to have voted for the compromise out of a desire to keep Washington solvent and hope that the automatic cuts never occur.
We couldn’t find any record Cantor saying he supported having the sequester. But the majority leader helped set the clock ticking on the cuts by voting for a measure that included their possibility. And he’s maintained a hard line against the compromise Democrats say is necessary to avoid the sequester: mixing in some tax increases with spending cuts to reduce deficits.
Cantor is now distancing himself from a situation he helped create. We rate that a Full Flop.

"OH NO! I'm on record?", he seems to say.
Let's not leave out the Majority Whip's support for Sequestration, Kevin McCarthy, majority whip; they could not have presented the legislation and had the votes without his support and efforts.  As noted in Politico on the attempt at revisionist history by the right - the only kind they seem to go in for:

Hoyer: GOP's sequestration claims 'patently false'

As Republicans have been on a messaging blitz to blame President Barack Obama for the sequester, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said that claim was “patently false.”
The GOP is “pretending it’s the president’s policy which is patently false, which is absolutely proven in the Republican’s Cut, Cap, and Balance bill, sequestration is the fallback position they put in their legislation. Period,” Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday.

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