Obama Steels Democrats for Spending Cuts Showdown

President Barack Obama, in a political pep talk to House Democrats on Thursday, vowed to push for an alternative to the sequester that combines some entitlement reforms with new revenue from high earners. "I am prepared, eager and anxious to do a big deal, a big package that ends this governance by crisis," he said at Democratic lawmakers' annual retreat. He also lambasted the GOP's spending cut proposals, hours after White House Press Secretary Jay Carney slammed a reported offer by House Speaker John Boehner. "What they've suggested is that the only way to replace it now is for us to cut Social Security, cut Medicare and not close a single loophole, not raise any additional revenue from the wealthiest Americans or corporations who have a lot of lawyers and accounts," Obama told Democrats. "If that's an argument that they want to have before the court of public opinion, that is an argument I'm more than willing to engage in." He also said he was hopeful about his party's chance to take back the House in 2014. "I would expect that Nancy Pelosi's going to be speaker again pretty soon," he said.

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