Obama blames Republicans as he wields $83b axe
Date March 3, 2013
Jon Swaine
Failed to reach an agreement with the Republicans on budget cuts ... Barack Obama. Photo: Bloomberg
BARACK OBAMA has ordered $US85 billion ($83 billion) in budget cuts that could slow the US economy and slash jobs, after blaming Republicans for refusing to stop the ''dumb'' spending cuts.
The President has accused Republicans of inflicting ''unnecessary and inexcusable'' damage on the American economy and demonising him rather than trying to strike a budget deal.
''We should not be making a series of dumb, arbitrary cuts to things like education, research and defence,'' Mr Obama said.
The so-called ''sequestration'' cut was designed in 2011 to be so unpalatable that leaders from both parties would be forced to agree on another deal to reduce the $US845 billion budget deficit.
Talks between Mr Obama and congressional leaders failed to reach anything close to an agreement, after Republicans rejected his demands to close tax loopholes for high earners before cutting benefit programs and overhauling the tax code.
Warning that the cuts could reduce US growth by half a percentage point this year and jeopardise 750,000 jobs, Mr Obama accused Republicans in Congress of forcing ''pain'' on ordinary Americans.
While they refused to consider plans with which he won re-election last year, he said, ''the majority of the American people agree with me - including, by the way, a majority of Republicans''. He dismissed suggestions that he might have done anything more to force a deal when the House of Representatives was under Republican control, saying: ''I am not a dictator; I'm the President.''
''Is there something I could do to make some of these guys - the House Republican caucus - not paint horns on my head?'' he asked, urging a ''caucus of commonsense'' in Washington to speak up instead.
John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House, dismissed Mr Obama's claims, saying he would not budge on the issue of new taxes. ''The discussion on revenue is over,'' he said.
Rejecting Mr Obama's suggestion that his plan was backed by most people, Mr Boehner added: ''The American people know that Washington has a spending problem.''
The immediate impact of the cuts on the public was uncertain. They would carve 5 per cent from domestic agencies and 8 per cent from the Pentagon between now and October 1 but would leave several schemes alone.
The cuts are just the first of a series of budget crises that will confront Congress and the White House before the northern summer. So entrenched are the two parties that chaplain Barry Black opened the Senate session on Thursday with a prayer for intervention: ''Rise up, O God, and save us from ourselves.''
Telegraph, London; AAP
