The White House says automatic spending reductions will be put off until late this evening. President Obama must issue the order for $85 billion in cuts sometime today. And White House press secretary Jay Carney says that means midnight, because Obama remains "ever hopeful."
Idaho Governor Butch Otter weighed in on the cuts known as the sequester yesterday. He was on the east coast, speaking to a meeting of Farmers Insurance officials.
Otter expressed his frustration over federal spending which he says is unsustainable and dangerous. “We have to do something like this, because the way you guys are spending money back here is crazy. It is like I get a credit card and I go down and I go out and charge a $100,000 worth of stuff on it and I hand it to my grandson (J.C.) and I say here ‘J.C., pay this off.’ That is exactly what we are doing.”
The president met with lawmakers at the White House this morning. He later blamed Republicans in Congress, saying, “We shouldn't be making a series of dumb, arbitrary cuts.”
Republicans countered by saying the President Obama should be blamed...for insisting that higher taxes be part of the resolution.
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