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Politics : Mainstream Politics and Economics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (39457)

2/23/2013 10:37:13 AM

From: longnshort

4 Recommendations Respond to of 85487

Bob Woodward: 'Obama is a Liar'

Posted by Aurelius at 11:53 PM
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Pointed words from a respected, and unexpected, source. From the Washington Post (emphasis mine):

Misunderstanding, misstatements and all the classic contortions of partisan message management surround the sequester, the term for the $85?billion in ugly and largely irrational federal spending cuts set by law to begin Friday.

What is the non-budget wonk to make of this? Who is responsible? What really happened?

The finger-pointing began during the third presidential debate last fall, on Oct. 22, when President Obama blamed Congress. “The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed,” Obama said. “It is something that Congress has proposed.”

The White House chief of staff at the time, Jack Lew, who had been budget director during the negotiations that set up the sequester in 2011, backed up the president two days later...

The president and Lew had this wrong. My extensive reporting for my book “The Price of Politics” shows that the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House and were the brainchild of Lew and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors — probably the foremost experts on budget issues in the senior ranks of the federal government.

Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved...

So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts.

Barack Obama: Liar

To: koan who wrote (39457)	2/23/2013 3:42:27 PM
From: Broken_Clock	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85487

I am in favor of the sequester. Only way to cut the bloated defense department. But if what you by posted by Woodward is true, why did Boener say he got 98% of what he wanted? because Obummer is GWB III. Ask the Rat. He'll say the same thing, although he probaly views O as more of a Reagan clone. +++ BTW, this is how wars begin. Obomber is a master at expanding stealth wars. He's got us in so many spots now I can't keep up. ++++++++++++++++++++++ U.S. sends troops to Niger for drone missions President Obama says the 100-troop deployment will help France in its effort to drive militants out of northern Mali. United Arab Emirates set to buy U.S. Predator drones Kerry's divergence from Obama on foreign crises raises questions U.S. drone strikes up sharply in Afghanistan America's drone fleet By David S. Cloud and Kathleen Hennessey, Los Angeles TimesFebruary 22, 2013, 8:28 p.m. WASHINGTON — About 100 U.S. troops have deployed to the West African country of Niger to help establish a drone base for surveillance missions, in the latest step by the United States to aid French forces battling Islamic militants in neighboring Mali. In a letter to Congress on Friday, President Obama said the deployment would "provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region." The last 40 American troops in the deployment arrived in Niger on Feb. 20 with the consent of the government, Obama said. A senior U.S. officer described the troops as a security unit that will protect crews flying and maintaining U.S. Air Forcedrones now operating from an airfield near the capital, Niamey. The force includes drone pilots, intelligence liaison officers and aircraft maintenance personnel, the officer said. "We're basing drones there to help the French, and this deployment is the security element," the officer said. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the operation publicly. French forces have been battling to push Islamic militants out of northern Mali in recent weeks in an effort to oust insurgents who seized local control after the civilian government collapsed last year. Predator drones are already flying over Mali to assist French troops, who intervened in January and have driven back militants and Tuareg rebels, who had taken over three major cities and were threatening Mali's capital, Bamako. The drones flying from Niger will be unarmed surveillance aircraft tracking suspected militants operating in the remote parts of northern Mali. The aircraft could also be used over other countries in the region, the officer said. The Obama administration has not yet decided to establish a permanent drone base in Niger, the senior officer said. For the moment, the operation is considered a temporary mission to assist the French. But some senior officers in the Pentagon's Africa Command, which oversees military operations on the continent, favor a permanent base to develop a better picture of the militant threat in West Africa, the officer said. Among the groups the U.S. is worried about is Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist group in neighboring Nigeria. Currently, the only permanent base in Africa from which drones operate is in Djibouti, thousands of miles to the east. In addition to the militants in Mali — some with loose ties to Al Qaeda groups — extremists have taken refuge in the largely ungoverned desert areas of southern Libya and Algeria. If the Obama administration decides to authorize a permanent base in Niger, it would probably be in Agadez, near northern Mali, the officer said, confirming a report in the New York Times. Some senior military commanders, in arguing for a permanent base, say the militant threat in the region is growing and could eventually threaten the U.S. and its allies unless more aggressive action is taken. But some Obama administration officials are skeptical about getting more deeply involved in the region, saying there is no strong evidence that militants there want to target the United States. Some officials also argue against getting involved in a low-level military operation just as direct U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan is nearing an end. The Obama administration has helped the French operation in Mali with intelligence, transportation for French troops and air refueling of French fighters. But the White House has kept the U.S. role limited. The U.S. buildup in Niger, though still small in numbers, has unfolded quickly. Last month, the U.S. and Niger signed an agreement outlining legal protections for American troops operating there. The U.S. also has been operating surveillance drones across the region, including over a natural gas complex last month in eastern Algeria, where militants took hundreds of people prisoner during a four-day siege that killed 37 hostages. david.cloud@latimes.com