and send home a lot of fbi investigators at a time when we need them. not only am i having to lose 3,000 positions, but is there a very real prospect, unless something is done, that i m going have to send home for two weeks without pay, the good men and women who work in this building behind me and who are charged with protecting the american people. that makes no sense at all to me. i bet it doesn t make sense to you either. the fbi s sequester plan is based on requirements from the arbitrary cuts demanded by republicans during the absurd debate that led us to the absurd automatic sequester back in november 2011. and here s how the new york times summarizes the plan that comey is being forced to oversee. fbi headquarters will shut down for several days at a time. fbi field offices will also shut down. during the shutdowns, the bureau will, quote, have only a skeleton crew on hand. now, the times reports it s questionable how effectively the fbi can respond to crime under this
they want something to work. something fundamental to work. that s the difference between washington and the states. at the state level we may want as republican governors less government but want the government we have to work. sam? you mentioned sequestration as something that goes over the head of our people but from your perspective as a governor how that policy has impacted your state, your ability to do your job? well, it has an impact no matter what, whether the shutdown or sequester. i remember back in february all the governors get together every year with the president and white house and the president, obviously, back early was adamant against in his opposition to the sequester. i said very respectfully to mr. president, when we sat down with all the governors, do with your cabinet what we ve done in states all across america, that is, if you don t like the sequester plan have your cabinet put together an alternative plan and find a better way to do that. unfortunate
sequester plan, it is literally in bold letters. a couple of days later i was talking with mike murphy who s a fairly moderate republican strategist on twitter and he too was saying obama needs to put chained cpi on the table and we said, well, he did. and he said well, that was a gimmick, he wanted revenues in return for it. this happens a lot. the lines of communication to folks who are not in the republican party leadership are much weaker than one would expect. part of that is on the white house for not having a great congressional outreach operation. part of it is of course on members of congress, who should probably be going and reading plans on the website. but whoever you blame, people do not have the information they should frankly have in this town. well, what s the motivation of the republican leadership to not tell its members what the white house is actually doing? i mean, it is disappointing that members of congress don t believe things that are publicly known unless th
senior republican member of congress about a week and a half ago, and it was a background briefing so, i can t say who. but this was a genuinely good guy, very informed guy, one of the guys who knows this issue very well. and there was a bunch of reporters in the room. and somebody said to him, would it matter if president obama put chained cpi, which is a way of cutting social security benefits, on the table? and the member of congress said absolutely, that would be a huge deal. and one of the other reporters said, but he did. it s right there in his budget. and the congressman said, well, who did? and the reporter said, the president. and the guy said, well, i d like to see that. and it s literally, this is not one of those issues, chain cpi where you need to rely on the reporting out of the secret negotiations with john boehner. it s on the website. if you just look at the sequester plan, it is literally
we understand tomorrow the california congressman dana ro rorhbacer will be in front senate to encourage the state department to actually act finally and try to spring the doctor free. they have been making suggest he will attempts in the background but they really have got even nowhere in the many months that have passed since he was incarcerated in pakistan, jenna. jenna: a story we ll continue to watch and follow. thank you. jon: the white house and republicans as we ve been telling you are fighting over who to blame if the sequester should kick in on friday. bob woodward of the washington post is laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of president obama saying the white house came up with the sequester plan and the president approved it. so let s talk about it with our news watch panel today. jim i pinkerton a contributor editor and writer for a conservative magazine.