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Obama tried to help the budget supercommitte. Really.

In September, the president proposed a budget to the supercommittee that included budget cuts meant  to please Republicans. Yet some say he failed to "reach across the aisle."

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Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP
President Barack Obama, seated with outgoing White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, gestures while meeting with the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Bernstein argues that some Republican' accusations that Obama didn't offer any help to last year's failed deficit supercommitte are simply untrue.

I’m pretty old school in that I believe elected officials are always worthy of respect, so I tried to be respectful in this dust up with Senator Pat Toomey on CNBC this AM.  The thing is, it’s important not to let anyone—elected official or otherwise—mislead like this, especially when their version is just so contradictory to the truth.

Sen Toomey, who was a member of the failed supercommittee, argued that the President simply wouldn’t offer any help to the committee, nor would he countenance any cuts to entitlements.

Except for this:

In September, the President proposed a budget to the supercommittee.  There’s a chapter in that budget document called “Health Savings” which proposes about $250 billion in Medicare savings and about $70 billion in Medicaid savings (both over 10 years).

When I pointed this out to the Senator, he complained about the lack of bipartisanship, reaching across the aisle, etc.  But again, as I pointed out, the President’s proposals were exactly that—a reach across the aisle to an issue—entitlement cuts—about which R’s have been clamoring and frankly, as I noted in the clip, go well beyond many D’s comfort zone.

I’m sorry, but with respect, it is impossible to take such politicians’ calls for bipartisan compromise seriously when, on national TV, they refuse to acknowledge such efforts.  The President is, at this point, well within his rights to say, “I tried.”

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