POLITICO.COM : Supercommitee’s failure: Obama blames GOP : "Too many Republicans in Congress refused to listen to the voices of reason and compromise that were coming from outside Washington".......

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Obama : "That refusal continues to be the main stumbling block that’s preventing Congress from reaching an agreement to further reduce our deficit"

POLITICO.COM
Supercommitee’s failure: Obama blames GOP
By JOSH GERSTEIN
November 21, 2011


Supercommitee’s failure: Obama blames GOP


Some excerpts :

Obama, who has faced past complaints from congressional Democrats that his criticism sometimes lumps them in with the GOP, took a decidedly different tack Monday. He said Democrats stepped up to the plate and Republicans were intransigent.

“To their credit, many Democrats in Congress were willing to put politics aside and committed to reasonable adjustments that would have reduced the costs of Medicare,” Obama said. “Too many Republicans in Congress refused to listen to the voices of reason and compromise that were coming from outside Washington…..That refusal continues to be the main stumbling block that’s preventing Congress from reaching an agreement to further reduce our deficit.”

Obama took no questions, but he did seek to counter the charge that he never stepped up to the plate to offer his own prescription for the cuts the supercommittee unsuccessfully sought.

Criticism that Obama stayed aloof from the process has emerged in recent days from Republicans as well as Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and centrists like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.”

“In September, I sent them a detailed plan that would have gone above and beyond that [$1.2 trillion] goal,” the president said. He said the supercommittee also had an array of other plans to choose from, suggesting that the problem was not a dearth of suggestions but a lack of political will.

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