John Kyle, Grover Norquist, and John Kerry all appeared seperately on CNN's American Morning this morning to answer questions as to why this committee cannot seem to agree on anything. John Kyle stated that the republicans had put revenue on the table but that the democrats refused to budge on cuts. John Kerry stated that the sticking point was the idea that the Republicans insisted that the Bush tax cuts for the very rich be made permanent before anthing else could be done. This idea is unacceptable to the Democrats. Kerry also blamed Grover Norquist and his tax payer pledge as one of the sticking points that seemed to come up repeatedly in the committees meetings.
Grover Norquist stated that the signers of his pledge had signed a pledge to their electorate back in their home districts and states and that, when asked, what he did when anyone violated this pledge. He stated that they simply went to that state or district and informed the electorate what that representative had done.
John Kerry also stated that it seemed as if that Grover Norquist was the unelected thirteenth member of the committee.
None of the cuts mandated by the committe's failure to act would go into effect until 2013 and that would give the congress ample time to work around them, particularly when it comes to the defense department. It should be noted also that the defense department has has increases in its budget for the last decade and now that budget tops 700 billion dollars. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stated last week that forced cuts to the defense budget would create a "hollow force" no longer capable of fighting two wars at once.
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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