In a new PEW research poll released today Feb. 21, on who is to blame for the “sequester” if Congress and the President fail to reach a deal before the March 1, 2013 deadline shows; 49 percent blame the Republicans, 31 percent blame the President, 11 percent blame both the President and Congress and 8 percent are not sure.
The new survey, conducted Feb. 13-18, 2013 with 1,504 adults nationwide, is the first in collaboration between the Pew Research Center and USA TODAY.
The sequester cuts, were passed in the Budget Control Act passed in 2011. The sequester was designed to force Congress to implement alternative spending cuts to raise the debt ceilings if both Democrats and Republicans could not reach a deal on their own for spending cuts.
The sequester calls for across-the-board cuts in 2013:
- 8.4 percent cut in most affected non-defense discretionary programs
- 7.5 percent cut in affected defense programs
- 8.0 percent cut in affected mandatory programs other than Medicare
- 2.0 percent cut in Medicare provider payments
Three PEW research polls show American citizens continue to hold Republicans responsible for creating economic crises, not only for the sequester, but also for the debt ceiling crisis and the fiscal cliff crisis.
The sequestration came about from a deal made by the Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and the Tea Party members of his caucus who jumped at the idea; they thought that Mitt Romney would be in the White House and not Barack Obama. You can read the leaked Power Point presentation by Speaker Boehner to his caucus explaining his plan.
The new spin from Republicans and the right wing media is to blame the sequestration plan on President Obama, when in fact; it was Speak Boehner’s plan. The only insistence by Obama was that the sequestration would not go into effect until after the Presidential election.
The Republicans in Congress continue to create one crisis after another, they weaken and slow our economic recovery and each and every time they create a crisis, they blame it on President Obama. And just as America citizens rejected Mitt Romney in favor of President Obama, American citizens know that it’s the Republican Party who’s responsible for each of these economic crises that they themselves have created, just as the PEW polls point out.
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