🚀 go-pugleaf

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney countered House 
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi after she claimed it's a "false 
argument" to say the federal government has a spending problem.

"Of course, the president believes that we have a spending 
problem," Carney said Monday, adding that the problem is 
"specifically driven" by health care spending. "And that's just 
a fact."

The gentle reminder of the nation's bloated entitlement spending 
came after Pelosi,  in an interview with "Fox News Sunday," 
challenged those calling for more cuts.

"We have to recognize that, which cuts really help us and which 
cuts hurt our future? And cuts in education, scientific research 
and the rest are harmful, and they are what are affected by the 
sequestration," she said on "Fox News Sunday." "So, it is almost 
a false argument to say we have a spending problem.

We have a budget deficit problem that we have to address."

Though the White House countered the remark Monday, Pelosi was 
nevertheless aligning herself with Obama in calling for 
Washington to avert a looming round of budget cuts -- by 
replacing them with a blend of cuts and tax hikes.

The cuts are set to kick in March 1 and will impact the Pentagon 
more than any other single department. Republicans want the 
package replaced with a less arbitrary slate of cuts. But Pelosi 
argued that more cuts would hurt the economy, and in turn do 
little to close the deficit.

Few would argue with Pelosi's claim that the government has a 
deficit problem. The annual deficit exceeded $1 trillion for 
each of the past four years, adding $6 trillion total to the 
national debt during President Obama's first term.

But Republicans argue that the gaping shortfall cannot be closed 
with tax increases alone -- and that, indeed, Washington has a 
rather severe spending problem.

Even many in the Democratic Party concede that the growth in 
entitlement spending -- on Medicare and other budget gobblers -- 
needs to be checked.

Some kind of agreement, even a short-term one, needs to be 
reached in the next few weeks to avoid $85 billion in arbitrary 
spending cuts next month. Pelosi stressed that Democrats want to 
increase revenue by closing loopholes, including those for oil 
companies, as opposed to raising tax rates.

Her argument is similar to the one President Obama is expected 
to restate Tuesday during his State of the Union address.

However, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole said fellow House Republicans 
will "absolutely not" accept tax increases as part of a deal, 
which would trigger the cuts to federal defense and 
discretionary spending.

Cole told ABC News' "This Week" that the president refused to 
agree to spending cuts during the recent, so-called "fiscal 
cliff" negotiations so Democrats are not getting revenue 
increases now.

"I think (sequester) is inevitable, quite frankly," he said.

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain also said Sunday that 
Republicans don't want tax increases, considering they just 
agreed to end more than $1 trillion in income tax breaks, but 
suggested he might be open to closing some tax loopholes.

He also urged both parties to work together to avoid sequester, 
which will result in big cuts to the defense budget and roughly 
$1.2 trillion in total cuts over the next decade.

"I'll take responsibility as a Republican, but we've got to 
avoid it," said McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed 
Services Committee. "The world is a very dangerous place."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/11/pelosi-false-argument-
to-say-washington-has-spending-problem/?intcmp=obnetwork

--
Are you obligated as an armed civilian, to defend unarmed 
liberals while you are both under fire by foreign agents of the 
outlaw Obama administration?

No.  Shoot the liberals immediately so they can't stab you in 
the back while you are defending yourself, then return a 
controlled rate of aimed fire.

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