Club For Growth Aide: It’s Not The ‘President’s Sequester’

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Congressional Republicans have been trying to pin a looming set of automatic spending cuts known as sequestration on President Obama, even dubbing it ‘Obamaquester’ on Friday.

Barney Keller, communications director for the conservative group Club for Growth, took to Twitter to rebut that effort.

“Every time I hear the Republicans call this the “President’s sequester” my head explodes,” Keller tweeted on Monday, “because all of the Republicans voted for the legislation that created the sequester.”

A large majority of House Republicans voted for the sequester in 2011, but GOP aides are quick to note an excerpt from Bob Woodward’s book “The Price of Politics” that quotes Obama chief of staff Jack Lew as first proposing the sequester as an enforcement mechanism for future budget cuts.

The Club for Growth announced on Friday that it was opposed to a plan, put forward by Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), that would replace the first year of sequestration cuts, $85 billion, with a 10-percent reduction in the federal workforce.

“Pushing off spending cuts that Congress promised to make is simply wrong.” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. “Fiscal conservatives should insist that the full amount of cuts are made now, and should oppose replacing them with promised cuts that could be abolished by future Congresses. House Republicans have already said that they are willing to allow sequestration to occur, and Senate Republicans should follow their lead.”

 

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