Page 5 - Obama Sequester News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Then, when more was being put on the table by the president they could have realistically gotten more cuts, gotten some of the entitlement reforms that they wanted to. but because it was an all or nothing situation here for them, now they're here down the road with very little leverage and very little to show for it. >> and now we have bill crystal -- it reads kind of like a new song, called "it is understandable" in the weekly standard, he says it is understandable because republicans are in favor of cutting domestic spending, it is understandable because the republicans are desperate to secu...

Cliff with the sequester and then basically restore the funding levels later in the continuing resolution. and maybe that is where they can pull the victory out. >> we have a clarification about something that could be discussed in any kind of grand bargain, and that is the white house position on the medicare eligibility age. let's listen to that. >> is the president open to raising the eligibility age for medicare? >> no, absolutely not. the president has made clear that we don't believe that is the right policy to take. >> well, krystal, i'll check that off. that signals that. that is not g...

Sequester if push came to shove. >> steve, that was very rude of jay carney to remind us of what, to use numbers like the factual record. >> we can see this week -- in 2011, it happened twice, actually o-- first, there was this continuing resolution fight early in 2011. republicans were ready to shut down the government over spending cut demands. and the white house, what we now see there is a report out that jack liu found ways to make phantom cuts, to protect the poor, and republicans didn't really look into it and accepted it. and said now we got our spending c cuts. you're saying now, the ...

They needed some way, any way out of it. so what the white house, the democrats put in front of them was the committee, the sequester, they were so happy to have any kind of lifeline, and john boehner comes out, pretends it is a victory, 98%, keeping the members in line. now here it is, a ticking time bomb for republicans, a year, year and a half, they're realizing, wait a minute, we don't have much leverage with the sequester after all. >> but the thing is, boehner did get 98% of what he wanted if you believe that he really wants spending cuts. >> right, exactly, but he doesn't want any spend...

Would be deeply irresponsible. steve, deeply irresponsible has never been a winning argument with the house republicans. it has never scared them. >> but i guess, this is an interesting division in the republican party with the rise of the tea party. because the republican party has traditionally been the protector of the defense contracts. there is a conservative part that says to heck with them, we're in favor of big sweeping cuts but we're also okay with big sweeping cuts to the defense department. then you have big crystal, john mccain even floating the idea maybe he would be okay with mor...