Even if President Obama manages to reverse his slide in the polls and eke out a victory over Mitt Romney on November 6th, he will not be able to take a break from campaigning. That’s because his failure to produce a budget deal with Republicans last summer set up a huge December showdown with Congress over taxes, spending, and debt. And Obama’s evasive debate performance Monday night made that showdown even harder for him to resolve on his terms.
When Romney attacked Obama on the $55 billion in Defense cuts that are scheduled to begin January 1st, commonly referred to as the sequester, Obama replied, “The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.” Not only is this statement just plain false, Obama’s aides were forced to immediately retract it after the debate was over.
