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Former U.S. Comptroller General Blasts Obama Budget

JOE KERNAN:  Let's get back to what happened then. We understand this is -- there's an election coming and it's a divisive time. What did the President propose that allowed him to get zero votes? What was the -- what was the mechanism of what he was doing? What was the Obama administration thinking? Why did it get zero and then we'll go on to the social darwinism that we're hearing on the other side that shows how far apart. One gets zero and the other one you see grandma and grandpa out in the snow starving, supposedly according to the other side.

DAVID WALKER: It didn't adequately address the structural problems that we have.

KERNAN: Why not?

WALKER: Because it's an election year and because the president did not embrace Simpson - Bowles and, frankly, he has not provided adequate leadership.

KERNAN: He didn't get one person to vote for it? Not one?

WALKER:  Last year, if you recall, Joe, last year the President's budget was defeated 97 to nothing in the Senate. This year it was defeated 414 to nothing in the House. You can’t spin that vote. Believe it or not, the White House is trying to spin that vote. You can't spin a 414-0 vote.

REBECCA QUICK: He doesn't get any Democrats to vote for it.

WALKER: Well, that’s what I’m saying. You didn’t even get anyone in your own party to vote for it.

KERNAN: It’s bipartisanship.

WALKER: A rare show of bipartisanship. But rejection.

Published under: Obama Administration