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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks at The Associated Press luncheon during the ASNE Convention, Tuesday, April 3, 2012, in Washington.
Updated at 1:45 p.m. ET In what was billed a “big speech” by the White House, President Barack Obama took to the podium at an Associated Press luncheon on Tuesday to hit hard at the budget put forward by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. He called the plan, backed by the Republican-controlled House, a “Trojan horse.”
The president linked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to the plan, offering sharp criticism of both. “He said that he’s very supportive of this new budget. And he even called it ‘marvelous,’ which is a word you don’t often hear when it comes to describing the budget.” He added, to laughter and applause, “It’s a word you don’t often hear generally.”
He also swung at congressional Republicans for their approval of the $3.5 trillion plan, saying, “Instead of moderating their views even slightly, the Republicans ... have doubled down and proposed a new budget so far right it makes the ‘Contract with America’ look like the New Deal.”
President Obama says that the House Republicans' recently-revealed budget plan would hurt America's working families and seniors. Watch his entire speech.
Obama said the proposal “breaks our bipartisan agreement and proposes massive new cuts in annual domestic spending.” He insists that it’s “exactly the area where we’ve already cut the most.”
He called the Ryan plan a “prescription for decline” that harms future generations. "It's antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who's willing to work for it, a place where prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top but grows outward from the heart of the middle class," he said.
First Read: Obama's rebuttal to Ryan (and Romney)
Before the Washington luncheon even ended, Ryan responded to the president's attacks. In a statement, he said, "Like his reckless budgets, today's speech by President Obama is as revealing as it is disappointing: While others lead by offering real solutions, he has chosen to distort the truth and divide Americans in order to distract from his failed record."
He countered that "history will not be kind" to Obama for his "duck and run tactics."
President Obama says the proposed budget by the Republicans so far to the right it makes the Contract to America look like The New Deal.
Outside of Ryan and Romney, Obama contended that the entirety of the Republican Party was attempting to enforce a "radical vision" for America, an environment so extreme that Ronald Reagan wouldn't have succeeded in it.
Obama said, "Ronald Reagan, who as I recall was not accused of being a tax-and-spend socialist, understood repeatedly that when the deficit started to get out of control that for him to make a deal he would have to propose both spending cuts and tax increases ... He did it multiple times. He could not get through a Republican primary today."
Separately, the president commented on the recent oral arguments over his health care overhaul. He believes the Supreme Court justices will uphold the law and isn't planning on contingencies.
Leave a Comment:
Silly DEMS, They can't even get THEIR OWN BUDGET thru the Senate THEY still control
They don't even have the guts to take the issue up anymore. They prefer to stick to badmounthing Republican budgets.
We spend 700 Billion dollars a year to import foreign sources of energy. If we were to keep that money here, instead of sending it overseas, our economic troubles would be over. We have domestic sources of energy in the form of coal, natural gas, oil, wind, nuclear, geothermal, solar, and bio-fuel that would more than meet our needs. We need a well thought out, national energy policy. We need a balanced budget, We need it soon.
Has anyone here actually read the Ryan plan or are you basing your opinion on what Obama and MSNBC says? Does the Ryan plan suck because he's a republican? Or because MSNBC says so? Or because Obama says so? I recommend you read whats in it and then make your own decisions. Media outlets like MSNBC and NBC have absolutely no credability. They fabricate news and twist things to sway your opinion. Read the bill and then make an educated decision and if you dont have time to read it then dont say it sucks because you dont know. This is a major problem with Congress. They have lawyers write bills that are thousands of pages long (like the ACA) and then they get a four page executive summary and they say they read the bill when they didn't and they dont have a clue what's in it.
They don't want to know what's in it. It is a Republican generated plan and if it is adopted in any way it makes Obama in the democrats look bad. They can't allow that to happen without putting up some kind of argument. If Obama looks bad, NBC looks bad. It's not even about Obama, anymore.
Why do you think NBC is trying so hard to get George Zimmerman lynched? If it turns out that he was attacked and defended himself, as it starting to appear, all of MSNBC's TV hosts will look like very bad. The only reason they keep Sharpton around is so Ed Schultz won't be the biggest A$$hole on the network.
The words of President Obama regarding any budget are EMPTY when you consider that:
a) The Ryan plan is actual legislation that was passed by the House of Representatives
b) The Obama proposal was unanimously rejected in a 0-414 vote by the House of Representatives
c) Harry Reid and Senate Democrats have no plans to draft a budget proposal for the second year in a row. “There’s no need to have a Democratic budget, in my opinion,” Reid told the Los Angeles Times
Of course Harry Reid isn't going to do anything. He knows that if his stomach is rumbling and he continues to pass gas he will be looked upon as obnoxious. However, if he craps in the neighbors yard, he will likely get thrown out of the neighborhood. He's not going to put a budget up for vote.
Harry Reid a joke! Of course the left doesn't bother with budgets, too messy, too easy to critique and too much work to actually think about and defend. Besides, it's easy to act like a dictator when you don't have to worry about sticking to a budget. Pelosi and Reid avoided budgets specifically because they didn't want to obligate themselves, or defend themselves, or explain themselves. "We have to pass the bill in order to know what's in it"! Funny how Obama does not question why no one in is own party voted for his budget proposal.
Budgets, like the Constitution, are impediments to the liberal agenda of unchecked government expansion.
,'-D
Harry REID is also a MORMON
-------------------------
Strange, When the DEMS bash Romney( on being a Mormon), they never mention Harry REID.
WHY ??????????????????????
Reid isn't running for president, duh.
Some people think that the POTUS will cause us to be like Greece you all best re-think, there is still people that are going to believe every half truth and lie that is flashed across their screen in the name of the GOP
Paul Ryan's austerity budget: What would it cut? His cuts Sound similar to what the largest majority of the Republican governors has all ready done in their States; Ryan will just make it Federal laws.
Ryan's plan is his proposal to transform Medicare into a system of subsidized private insurance plans
Cut:
Welfare
Housing assistances
Farm subsides, Agricultural subsidies ($30 billion)
Federal workers
Transportation
6 percent less on science, space, and technology
Education Services
Poisons
Border Protection
Student loans
FEMA
Student loans
Unemployment
Food stamps
13 percent less on veterans
Ryan wants to "shower the wealthiest few Americans with an average tax cut of at least $150,000
Here is what the people of this country and the POTUS is up against, here is where your rights that are being taken away is really coming from, corporations forming their our government, this is what the GOP, top 1% and Koch Bros are doing and have been doing since the 70’s, to our constitution, democracy and our great Nation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/vp/46972757#46972757
ALEC Exposed: Rigging Elections
http://www.thenation.com/article/161969/alec-exposed-rigging-elections
Check this out:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/2013-republican-budget
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/changes_deficit.jpg
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/side_by_side_040312.pdf
ranmarie - regarding your links, wasn't then Senator Barack Obama part of the Democrat controlled 110th congress under the Bush Administration? Be sure to blame Mr Obama, Mr Reid, and Ms Pelosi for any financial state you attribute to Mr Bush.
Oh and that link that shows the "President's 2013 Budget"? Isn't that a mute point as it failed a vote in the House 0-414? Not even ONE DEMOCRAT would support Mr Obama's budget proposal. NOT ONE. Has the Senate Democrats set a date for producing their budget? Oh yes, now I remember, Harry Reid told the Los Angeles Times “There’s no need to have a Democratic budget, in my opinion,”
NH_Shellback
Wow, don't you live in the past. It has nothing to do with the present or future.
Blame him? I applaud him. He took your leader's mess and turned it around.
Of course, your Eden would be to go back and kill the economy so the rich can take it all.
I guess you're a 1%er since you like republicans robbing the middle class and poor.
Take your millions and retire in another country. Middle class americans want their fair share.
Quit living off the backs of them and learn to earn your money. Pay your fair share of taxes and quit abusing the loopholes. Get off the government dole and give up those subsidies you don't need.
I'm sure a mother somewhere brought you into this world. Stop attacking her with your government rape, destruction of Planned Parenthood, and your vendetta against contraception.
Contrary to the lobbiests and legislatures you've hired, corporations are not people too. Cease your attacks on minimum wage. Your income has gone up 250% while the actual workers are stagnant.
Go ahead and support your rich man, Romney. There's more common folk that elitists. We'll see who takes the presidency; the essence of greed Romney or middle class supporter Obama.
Obama hasn't turned anything around.
Guero, pero sabor con chocholate
Thank you.
I will now disregard every expert in the field that says differently and go by your insightful thoughts.
Apparently, they mean nothing to you either.
Bosslimo, You forgot to include the talking point about Republicans "throwing grandma off the cliff" you may need to go back to remedial liberal left wing moonbat training.
2012 Budget
May 25, 2011 – The Senate voted unanimously (97-0) to reject a $3. 8 trillion budget plan that President Obama sent to Capitol Hill in January
“There’s no need to have a Democratic budget, in my opinion,” Reid told the Los Angeles Times
2013 Budget
March 28, 2012 - President Obama's budget was defeated 414-0 in the House late Wednesday
“We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year — it’s done, we don’t need to do it,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters
January 24, 2012, will mark the 1000 day since Democrats in the Senate passed a budget.
finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-failed-housing-policy-102100310.html ·
www.newsmax.com/StreetTalk/Obama-Homeowner-Refinancing-Plan/2011/
www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2011-09-22-Palestinains22_ST_U.htm
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126203939
www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/obama-buffett-tax/2011/09/20/id/411695
Here is you a sample of what the "experts" think about Obama.
Greek debt to GDP ratio: 160%
US debt to GDP ratio as of February 2012: 101%
We're on our way! Greece is the word, and yes it is time for painful and unpopular cuts to unchecked government spending and entitlements.
There is no Socialist Utopia. It is like the unicorn, leprechauns, and the dream of windmills replacing coal power plants: fantasy.
,'-D
Um, you do know that Greece is nothing like the United States, right?
Don't be fooled by the right wing propaganda. It is two different countries.
Angry white cons.... brave talk for someone who may mot be struggling through these difficult times in addition the "cuts" the repugs suggest are directly aimed at those who can least afford them. If you are looking for cuts how bout start with oil subsidies and tax loopholes for the rich and corporations for starters. Leave the elderly,disabled and unemployed alone!!!
For those right wingers who just say NO to increasing the taxes on the top one percent while blaming Obama for the deficit. Here is a chart showing why the deficit does not go down. At least Obama was and is trying to help the middle class and save the country from the mismanagement and greedy bastards in the Bush era.
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/07/28/the-truth-about-obamas-budget-deficits-in-pictures/
Holy @!$%# I picked up the right wing propaganda machine's version from the Heritage Foundation by mistake. I would have erased it but this damn blog from MSNBC sticks for some reason when I try to correct until it runs out of time. Other seeds don't do that but the ones from originated from MSNBC. Frustrating as hell.
Here we go: From the NY Times:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/obamas-and-bushs-effect-on-the-deficit-in-one-graph/2011/07/25/gIQAELOrYI_blog.html
Funny how one is no good but the other is grand.
Klein's graph is a joke.
S. Capps
I guess it gets down to who one trusts. I don't trust those who do the bidding of ALEC and the Koch Bros over the working class and retiree needs of the middle class. Sorry but the right wing has shown itself to just be in the tank for corporate interests and not the interests that create jobs in the US, just profit at any cost. That is exactly how the Wall Street justified what they did and the oil companies are now justifying what they are trying to do. Both make/made huge profits and did not have one concern for the environment, the working class or what they did to our country getting theirs. Ryan's budget does not share the pain, it sticks it on the working class and the retirees while still giving all the perks to those who sent our jobs overseas and are making huge gains now. I say they can stuff it. I will stick with Obama over your sorry excuse for a leader, Mittens.
So what if who you trust is misleading you. Ignorance is bliss.
S.Capps.... the only one who is blissfully ignorant is you if you back everything, I mean everything, that the conservative right dishes outr in propoganda. I can think of 5 stories at least that the right put out that does not hold up on the facts and that is just in the last few months! The facts are just that... facts not liberal spin but there are many on this blog that feel that if there is just a hint of liberal thinking it is not only discounted but called lies pretty frustrating way to run a country.
Well lets see your stories and please show me the propaganda that I am backing. Here again is the joke Jennifer posted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/obamas-and-bushs-effect-on-the-deficit-in-one-graph/2011/07/25/gIQAELOrYI_blog.html
You look at it and tell me that Klein did not clearly spin that. Facts are facts . The defense Budget has increased under Obama, wheres the auto bail out it was not fully repaid, cost of healthcare has doubled (I do realize that happened after the graph, which means this graph is not valid because its not up to date). Nice try to suggest Afghanistan is Bushes fault, Iraq built up during Clinton's watch, I seem to remember that Obama extended the Bush tax cuts, was Libya free, Bushes tarp was paid off.
you should read some of these as well.
http://my.firedoglake.com/bmull/2010/03/28/ezra-klein-and-the-evolution-of-spin/
http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2012/02/susan-g-komen-planned-parenthood-and-ezra-kleins-spinning-pie-chart/
http://ttmsoia.andyhill.us/2011/04/13/ezra-kleins-bias-and-spin/
http://www.libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=17889
Man get Klein a record and a mic. Ezra Klein writes spin.