White House blames Republican "brinkmanship" for GDP contraction
reuters.com ^ | January 30, 2013 | Mark Felsenthal
Posted on January 30, 2013 9:46:46 PM EST by Tailgunner Joe
The White House on Wednesday blamed the surprising contraction of the economy at the end of last year at least partly on Republican "political brinkmanship" for threatening to let defense cuts take effect.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said similar threats over a looming March 1 deadline when defense and other cuts take effect absent a broader budget deal could similarly hurt the U.S. economy and taxpayers.
"This is political brinkmanship with one primary victim, and that is American taxpayers and the American middle class," Carney said at a briefing.
"Our economy is facing a major headwind ... and that's Republicans in Congress."
Carney referred to comments by former vice presidential candidate and House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, who said Sunday he believes the automatic spending cuts will go into effect because Democrats have not offered alternatives, and remarks made by House Speaker John Boehner.
Boehner said in a January 6 interview that he had the spending cuts "in my back pocket" for use as a bargaining chip in budget talks with the White House.
"It's not a game. It's the American economy," Carney said. "The American people - those who pay attention to this issue in detail - are rightly appalled by those kind of tactics that, you know, do harm to their lives, do harm to the economy in the name of ... achieving some political objectives here in Washington."
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