On Thursday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said President Barack Obama went too far when he publicly explained the consequences of the looming sequestration deadline.
“Well, they know that they really overshot it,” Krauthammer said. “It was the president himself. He could have had surrogates out there. But you know, the only thing left out of his litany of catastrophe is pestilence, earthquake, brimstone and plague. I mean it’s actually hilarious he goes through all of this. … I think the Republicans have to be armed. I think they have the upper hand to date because scare tactics.”
However, to keep that advantage, Krauthammer advised Republicans to demonstrate that they wanted to give Obama the power to prioritize the cuts.
“But if they want to stay ahead of the game, they got to do two things,” Krauthammer said. “They have to emphasize they are offering the president authority over how the spending cuts are done. The Senate has rejected it. The president has said he would not accept it. He would exercise a veto.”
Krauthammer also said Republicans should be out highlighting where government has been wasteful — a frequent focus of Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn.
“And secondly, the Republicans ought to highlight every day all of these useless obsolete or idiotic stuff happening in the federal government. It isn’t hard to find. Every year, Sen. [Tom] Coburn compiles a list of all this waste and stuff. It’s all out there. What you do is an example a day, every day and say to the administration why didn’t you cut x, which is laughable. And instead, you cut police or teachers.”
