Posted on 10/23/2012 8:45:19 PM PDT by MissesBush
Bob Woodward says President Barack Obama got some of his facts wrong on sequester at Monday night’s debate.
Woodward’s book, “The Price of Politics,” has been the go-to fact check source for the president’s answer, in which he claimed the idea of using deep, automatic, across-the-board domestic and defense spending cuts to force Congress to address the nation’s burgeoning federal deficit originated from Congress, not from the White House.
“What the president said is not correct,” Woodward told POLITICO Tuesday. “He’s mistaken. And it’s refuted by the people who work for him.”
Woodward, a Washington Post journalist who was a key reporter on the initial coverage of the Watergate scandal, said he stands behind his reporting in the book, which drew upon sources involved in last year’s deficit talks and detailed notes taken in the meetings.
Woodward reports in his book that White House Office of Management Director Jack Lew and Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors took the proposal for sequestration to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and then it was presented to congressional Republicans.
During the debate, however, Obama said the idea originated on Capitol Hill.
“First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed,” Obama said, adding his strongest pronouncement to date on its future: “It will not happen.”
Woodward said there’s a possibility the president was unaware of how the idea came about.
“It’s a complicated process — and in fairness to the president — maybe he didn’t know that they were doing this because it’s kind of technical budget jargon,” Woodward said.
“What I wrote — it’s specific date, time, place, participants,” he said. “What I’ve reported is totally accurate. Call Nabors and Lew. Or ask the White House. I mean, they know that’s accurate.”
Still, briefing reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Jay Carney continued to blame sequestration on Congress.
"What the president said last night was a reiteration of what his position has long been," Carney said. “The sequester that was designed and passed by Congress was never meant to become policy, it was never meant to be implemented."
Woodward agreed that sequestration wasn’t intended to actually happen.
(PHOTOS: Scenes from the Boca Raton debate)
“No one thought it would happen. The idea was to design something … that was so onerous that no one would ever let it happen. Of course, it did, because they couldn’t reach agreement,” he said. “They all believed that the supercommittee was going to come up with a $1.2 trillion deficit-reduction plan, so there would be no sequestration. Of course, the supercommittee failed and so the trigger went off, which has all of these very Draconian cuts.”
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 3:53 p.m. on October 23, 2012.
When Obama attacked Romney for being stuck in time for calling Russia the biggest geopolitical threat to the United States instead of Al Qaeda, Obama made this startlingly unpresidential retort:
"Governor, the 1970's called, and they want their policy back."
Now, that's just childish!
-PJ
Glad to see we’re still Pals.
Over and over again, I have reason to say this guy is stuck at nine years old. That WAS childish.
Russia has never quite gotten over the fact that it tanked and the West didn’t. That’s true so much so, that Russia has sought to team up with China against us.
Chinese citizens are occupying Eastern Russia. Sooner or later, Russia is going to have to step in to end it, or watch China gobble up it’s Eastern frontier. What then? If Russia’s not careful, it will have to go to war with China at some point.
Russia should be siding with the West. Instead it plays the 1970s mind games that Obama thought was a joke. Russia still supports Syria and Iran. These are two very bad players in the region.
What’s Russia going to do when it’s Islamic headaches are supplied with a nuke by Iran, or even nuclear technology they can build upon themselves? Russia is played a very short-sighted game.
Obama understands none of this.
He’s so busy patting himself on the back for Iran not having the bomb yet, he completely misses the fact that Iran is proceeding at full speed developing one. And once they have it, it will be too late.
He dismissively laughs at things he can’t comprehend.
Russia, China, Islam, it’s a three headed beast that we would do best not to underestimate.
We need an adult in there.
Nine years old IS so seventies... for the guy we need in the Oval Office.
Agree!!!
“Bob Woodward is gaming you.”
I never been a fan of Bob Woodward, but when I see him frequently with Sean Hannity on FAUX News with a “new” tone, I see that even HE has discovered a traitor in the W.H. with his “liberals” views!!!
Noonan apparently see it the same way???
Kind of funny really. Obama is bad, because he’s going to lose. “Let’s distance the Left from this guy, so his going down is seen like something we really wanted all along too.”
If Obama were popular right now, do you honestly think this book would have been published? Woodward marches in as the voice of the establishment Democrats. “We wanted no part of him either!”
LOL, they were riding this pony for all it was worth. And now they’re going to sell him to a dog food manufacturer.
“We never really like our Pony. Sure we allowed the nation to be hoodwinked. We helped every way we could. We spend 3.5 years doing it. But we really didn’t like what he was doing.”
ROTFL Yeah, I’m buying it Bob. /s
Where was Bob in the fall of 2011, and the spring of 2012? He could have started a ground-swell effort to have someone challenge Obama for the nomination. Where was the Democrat leadership? Where WAS Peggy Noonan?
Now Bob sees things clearly? This is about two things.
1. Bob wants to be seen as credible.
2. Bob wants to run cover for the Leftists.
3. Bob wants to make a buck.
Come forward in 2009 or 2010, if you want me to believe you Bob. You allowed Obamacare, the apology tour, the selling out of Israel and our own interests, and countless other things to take place. And now you have a conscience? Not buying it Bob.
Kind of funny really. Obama is bad, because he’s going to lose. “Let’s distance the Left from this guy, so his going down is seen like something we really wanted all along too.”
If Obama were popular right now, do you honestly think this book would have been published? Woodward marches in as the voice of the establishment Democrats. “We wanted no part of him either!”
LOL, they were riding this pony for all it was worth. And now they’re going to sell him to a dog food manufacturer.
“We never really like our Pony. Sure we allowed the nation to be hoodwinked. We helped every way we could. We spend 3.5 years doing it. But we really didn’t like what he was doing.”
ROTFL Yeah, I’m buying it Bob. /s
Where was Bob in the fall of 2011, and the spring of 2012? He could have started a ground-swell effort to have someone challenge Obama for the nomination. Where was the Democrat leadership? Where WAS Peggy Noonan?
Now Bob sees things clearly? This is about three (oops) things.
1. Bob wants to be seen as credible.
2. Bob wants to run cover for the Leftists.
3. Bob wants to make a buck.
Come forward in 2009 or 2010, if you want me to believe you Bob. You allowed Obamacare, the apology tour, the selling out of Israel and our own interests, and countless other things to take place. And now you have a conscience? Not buying it Bob.
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