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Indian-American US Governors slam Obama for no sequester deal

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Press Trust of India Washington
Last Updated : Feb 26 2013 | 8:10 PM IST
Two Indian-American Governors have slammed Barack Obama for not finding a solution to the sequester's automatic spending cuts, saying the issue is "not rocket science" and the President is trying to scare the American people by portraying the cuts as dire.
At a press conference held after the Republican governors met with Obama at the White House, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, appearing with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said, "How many more times are the governors going to have to pick up the mess of Washington, DC.?"
"How many more times are we going to have to deal with these issues over and over again because of the finger pointing and the blame game that happens in Washington?" she asked.
Haley said the task of figuring out more reasonable budget cuts to replace the sequester cuts, which Obama has warned will have dire consequences, is something her kids could do.
"This is not rocket science. What this is is an inability to want to get to work. No one should be going home. No one should be playing golf. No one should be taking vacation. What they need to do is do what these governors do every day: We stay until we get it done," she said, in a jab at both the president, who spent the weekend golfing in Florida, and Congress, which recessed last week.
Jindal, the chairman of Republican Governor's Association accused Obama of "trying to scare the American people" by portraying the cuts as dire.

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Jindal said that the president's unwillingness in talks with the governors � to consider possible alternatives to the sequester that did not involve raising taxes � showed that they were not as "devastating" as he was suggesting they were.
"It just seems to us that it is time for the president to roll up his sleeves, to stop campaigning � the election is over � and to do the hard work of governing," Jindal said.
"There is a complete lack of leadership or responsibility or accountability in this town," the Daily Caller quoted Haley as saying.
On March 1, an USD 85bn group of budget cuts known as the sequester will go into effect. They will wipe out a host of federal programs in everything from national parks to the Pentagon to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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First Published: Feb 26 2013 | 8:10 PM IST

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