Tim Griffin: President Obama has done nothing to replace the sequester cuts he proposed back in 2011, but he has launched a coordinated political campaign in a desperate attempt to scare Americans

Bob Woodward Says President Obama Canceling Aircraft Carrier’s Deployment Is “a Kind of Madness.”

WASHINGTON – Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) issued the following statement regarding President Obama’s sequester scare tactics:

“President Obama has done nothing to replace the sequester cuts he proposed back in 2011—the same cuts he now claims to oppose. But he has launched a coordinated political campaign in a desperate attempt to scare Americans, belied by the fact that Washington will still spend more this year than it did last year. So far, his Administration has falsely claimed the sequester will impact an agency that doesn’t exist, wrongly said teachers will be laid off, hastily canceled the USS Harry S. Truman’s return to the Persian Gulf, and foolishly released hundreds of illegal immigrants from jail. While the President’s rhetoric is at fever-pitch, his questionable claims of catastrophe are quickly crumbling. Instead of deliberately undermining the government’s ability to provide critical services in order to score political points, President Obama should stop and consider the real people who will be forced to deal with the consequences of his irresponsible actions.”

The White House’s Questionable Claims Crumble:

1: White House Report Claims Sequestration Will Affect Federal Department That No Longer Exists. “[T]he OMB's September 2012 report says that under sequestration the National Drug Intelligence Center would lose $2 million of its $20 million budget…. [But] the National Drug Intelligence Center shuttered its doors on June 15, 2012[.]” (Reason, 2/25/13)

2: Teacher Pink Slips Claim by Duncan Not Backed by Evidence. “‘There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can’t come back this fall,’ Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Sunday on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ When he was pressed in a White House briefing Wednesday to come up with an example, Duncan named a single county in West Virginia and acknowledged, ‘whether it’s all sequester-related, I don’t know.’ And, as it turns out, it isn’t. Officials in Kanawha County, West Virginia say that the ‘transfer notices’ sent to at least 104 educators had more to do with a separate matter…. They don’t necessarily mean a teacher has been laid off…. [Only] about five to six teaching jobs…were likely to be cut regardless of the sequester.” (The Washington Post, 2/27/13)

3: Journalist Bob Woodward Says President Obama Canceling Aircraft Carrier’s Deployment Is “a Kind of Madness.” “The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward attacked President Barack Obama on Wednesday, saying the commander-in-chief’s decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier because of budget cuts is ‘a kind of madness.’” (Politico, 2/27/13)

4: Illegal Immigrants Released from Jail Due To Budget Cuts Yet to Occur. “The announcement that a few hundred illegal immigrants were being released was among the most significant and direct implications described so far by the Obama administration about the pending, automatic budget cuts that will take effect later this week under what is known as sequestration.” (Politico, 2/27/13)

Congressman Tim Griffin Washington, DC 1232 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2506 Fax: (202) 225-5903 Hours: Monday-Friday 9:00AM-6:00PM Eastern Time

Bob Woodward, White House “Moving the Goal Posts,” Using “Distortion & Confusion” to Demand Tax Hikes to Replace Its Sequester

White House “Moving the Goal Posts,” Using “Distortion & Confusion” to Demand Tax Hikes to Replace Its Sequester President Obama got more than $600 billion in tax hikes (with no spending cuts) just last month, and veteran journalist Bob Woodward says the president is “moving the goal posts” in his campaign to replace his sequester with even higher taxes. “That was not the deal he made,” Woodward writes. And claiming otherwise is a “classic case of distortion and confusion.” Here are a few more things to keep in mind this week: This is President Obama’s sequester. “The idea for sequestration did come from the White House, as news accounts made clear at the time,” reports the New York Times. “Jacob J. Lew, then Mr. Obama’s budget director and now his nominee for Treasury secretary, was the main proponent.” Republicans have passed two bills to replace the president’s sequester with smarter cuts and reforms. The House first passed its sequester replacement bill in May 2012 and then again last December. President Obama’s Senate hasn’t passed a thing. They haven’t passed a budget in nearly four years either.

The president’s “endless campaign” has left him “virtually absent” from the legislative process. The White House even waited until the last minute to lift its “gag order” on Cabinet officials. But lost in their campaign is the fact that the president got his tax hikes; it’s time to address Washington’s spending problem.

If the president were serious about replacing his sequester, he’d cancel his campaign events this week and devote his schedule to pressing his Democratic-controlled Senate to finally pass something.

John A. Boehner | Speaker of the House | Ohio’s 8th Congressional District Representative Office of the Speaker Contact H-232 The Capitol Washington D.C. 20515 P: (202) 225-0600 F: (202) 225-5117