The administration had been vigorously trying to blame Republicans for creating the sequester cuts, even though Bob Woodward reported they were the Obama Admin’s idea. The Whit Hosue finally admitted it today - so why in the world would Obama design cuts like this?
"Here's why he wanted sequester, and this is really important for you to understand because one thing that you have to start telling your friends, slap them across the face: Wake up. And you need to stay awake as much as you possibly can. What's happening in Greece and happening all over, there are marches now in ‑‑ gosh, where was it? There was a march in ‑‑ hang on. Let me see if I can find it again real quick. A march in ‑‑ shoot. I can't remember. It's someplace over in Europe. And they are ‑‑ the UN is now monitoring ‑‑ no, I'm sorry. It was in Australia. They cut the welfare payments to the poor, including single moms, and the UN is now investigating why they would cut welfare payments in Australia. And so now people are marching in the streets in Australia, in Greece, in France, in Italy, in Great Britain against austerity, which are budget cuts. You have to have budget cuts."
"So why would the president make ‑‑ we've said if you want ‑‑ if you're serious, you want to have budget cuts, you make budget cuts. Why would he design this? He just admitted it this weekend that he did indeed design these budget cuts. Why would you design it to be this way? You would design it to be this way because you're not serious about cutting the budget. You want to make sure no one ever seriously considers cutting the budget. He is laying the groundwork for the marches in the streets against ‑‑ he is designing Greece."
"When you see what's happening in Greece and in Spain where they are rioting in the streets, remember what Frances Fox Piven said? Why aren't there people in the streets? Remember this was all designed after the Watts Riots. So he is ‑‑ he is now training people that austerity is bad, that any budget cut is bad. While we were saying that, you know, you can't find $85 billion? He spent a million dollars on the golf course with Tiger Woods. A million dollars of your tax dollars went for him to play golf with Tiger Woods. Million. You can't find $85 billion in a $4 trillion budget? What, are you crazy? Of course you can. Of course you can. But he couldn't. So he wanted to furlough all the federal workers. He wants to federal ‑‑ he wants to furlough anybody, especially unions. Go after those union jobs. And also cut and make sure that you feel as much pain as you possibly can. You don't feel pain yet, but eventually he'll start blaming everything on this. Absolutely everything."
"It's why the GOP kept coming back and saying, 'There's other ways to cut, there's other ways to cut, there's other ways to cut,' and he refused all of them. Because he wants pain to be associated with any cut whatsoever. Because he is training us to march in the streets against any kind of austerity. We're the last ones out, guys. We're the last ones out. Every other Western nation is already out on the streets marching against austerity."