POLITICO Huddle this morning reports Senator Joe Manchin will “call out Obama on spending”. Below is what POLITICO Huddle leads with in its congressional newsletter.
SIREN: MANCHIN CALLS OUT OBAMA ON SPENDING — West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who plans to vote against both the Republican and Democratic versions of a long-term continuing resolution, will deliver a floor speech today in which he says President Barack Obama has failed to lead and needs to step up to the negotiating table. ‘[B]oth our options are extremely partisan and unrealistic. And neither one will pass. The first is a Democratic proposal that doesn’t go nearly far enough. This proposal, which calls for $6.5 billion in new cuts, utterly ignores our fiscal reality … Or, we could choose a second, even more flawed measure: a GOP proposal that blindly hacks the budget with no sense of our priorities or of our values as a country,’ he plans to say. ‘Why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations – our president – has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and cuts that he would be willing to fight for? … This debate will be decided when the president leads these tough negotiations. And, right now – that is not happening. … The bottom line is this – the president is the leader of this great nation, and when it comes to an issue of significant national importance, the president must lead. Not the majority leader or speaker, but the president.