By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Like most of us, Congresswoman Martha Roby (R) from Montgomery saw the third Presidential debate on Monday and heard President Obama’s dismissal of the automatic sequestration cuts that are to dramatically downsize the nation’s military on January 1. Rep. Roby wrote a response to the President’s remarks on the crisis.
Representative Roby wrote on Facebook, “Mr. President, the American people & our warfighters deserve better than election year blame games & doubletalk from the Commander-in-Chief. Simply saying military sequestration cuts “won’t happen” doesn’t make it so. We need leadership and cooperation from the President to help us avoid these devastating military cuts and, unfortunately, we’re getting neither.”
In a written statement Rep. Roby said that passing the buck on cuts was “not very presidential.” “While answering a question during last night’s presidential debate about the across-the-board slashing of military spending, President Obama at first seemed to defend cuts to Navy shipbuilding saying, “we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed.” Soon after, however, the President backtracked and said, “the sequester is not something I proposed. It is something Congress proposed. It will not happen.””
Congresswoman Roby sits on the House Armed Services Committee and voted against the Budget Control Act that included sequester cuts, said, “Our military is on the brink of receiving some of the most devastating cuts imaginable, and the President of the United States can’t get his story straight on why it’s happening or how to stop it. Despite the President’s maneuvering rhetoric, the sequester cuts did originate in the White House. Just ask Bob Woodward, who reported that fact in detail in his recent book. That the President would try to deny it now is certainly not very presidential.”
Rep. Roby continued, “But worse than passing the buck on his administration’s actions is their utter lack of leadership to help us avoid these cuts. Congress has put forth a reasonable plan to replace the arbitrary sequester cuts with targeted reductions that align with the nation’s priorities, yet the White House has been absent from any talks that would lead to a solution. Simply saying ‘it won’t happen’ doesn’t make it so. We need leadership and cooperation from the President to help us avoid devastating military cuts and, unfortunately, we’re getting neither.”
In the third Presidential debate Governor Mitt Romney (R) said, “We’re blessed with terrific soldiers, and extraordinary technology and intelligence. But the idea of a trillion dollar in cuts through sequestration and budget cuts to the military would change that.”
President Obama (D) responded, “”First of all, the sequester is not something that I’ve proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen. The budget that we are talking about is not reducing our military spending. It is maintaining it.”
The President (who signed the Budget Control Act of 2011) ordering the automatic defense and Medicare cuts if the ‘Super Committee’ failed has refused to sign the House budget without massive tax increases on Americans who make more than $250,000 a year. Republicans oppose the tax increase because they feel that a tax increase on America’s job creators and small businesses could plunge the nation into a second recession.
