Throughout the past 48 hours, there's been a lot of finger pointing about who is responsible — the president or Congress — for sequestration. Sequestration is the law that will result in $120 billion in spending cuts, half from defense, on Jan. 2 if Congress doesn't come together on a budget reduction plan during the lame-duck session after the election. If fully enacted, it would ultimately cut $500 billion from defense.
During Monday night's debate in Boca Raton, President Obama said "it will not happen," which is certainly what he and most — if not all — members of Congress hope for, but it remains to be seen if a deal can come to pass.
The president's media team began walking back the comment immediately after the debate, and some Democrats worry that he has lost leverage in the lame-duck by taking the threat of massive defense cuts off the board. (In a continuation of the discussion from last year, the president wants to mix tax cuts with spending cuts to help reduce the deficit, which Congressional Republicans have resisted.)
Naturally, Republicans pounced. On Tuesday, in a South Tampa campaign appearance with Senate candidate Connie Mack, as well as in repeated media interviews, John McCain made it clear that he was flabbergasted by President Obama's comment.
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2012.