Quick: how much were Social Security, Medicaid and food stamps cut by the sequester? Zero, you say? Those programs were exempted from sequester cuts, and Medicare was reduced by only 2%? Correctomundo!
So what was Andrea Mitchell thinking when she claimed on her MSNBC show that the sequester "gutted" social programs? You tell me. View the video after the jump.
Mitchell made her mind-blowing claim while chatting on her MSNBC show today with Obama economic advisor Gene Sperling. She alluded to comments made by Dem Congresswoman Diane DeGette on MSNBC, who said she'd only agree to extend present spending levels for six weeks. Mitchell then editorialized on her own, kvetching about social programs being "gutted."
Note: check the screengrab. No, that's not Sperling saying "What?? I can't believe what I just heard you say!" But by the same token, Sperling, a pretty careful guy by Obama admin standards, didn't endorse Mitchell's "gutted" remark.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Congresswoman Diane DeGette was on, I think, Last Word on MSNBC last night . And she made the point coming from the Democratic perspective she would agree to a clean CR, a clean continuing resolution, for a matter of six weeks. But beyond that she is not willing to go along. They have already embedded the sequester levels. And so the Republicans have really won the battle of the budget, the battle over spending. The Democratic programs, the social programs that Democrats care about have already been gutted by the sequester.
