President Obama endorsed Friday the House’s passage of a spending bill that pit many Democrats against the White House, saying the legislation amounted to “responsible governance” ahead of a possible government shutdown.
“This by definition was a compromise bill,” Obama told reporters Friday. “This is what is produced when you have a divided government that the American people voted for. Now, there are a couple provisions in this bill that I really do not like. … Had I been able to draft my own legislation, get it passed without any Republican votes, I suspect it would be slightly different.”
Obama was forced to defend the legislation after leading progressives, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged Democrats not to support the bill.
Progressives balked at provisions of the legislation that rolled back the Dodd-Frank Act, a central provision of the party’s Wall Street reform package, and chipped away at campaign finance laws.
The White House counters that the economy could not afford the threat of another government shutdown and argues that Democrats would have even less leverage with Republicans had they punted the spending fight to early 2015.
And Obama insisted that he still got mostly everything he wanted out of the spending bill.
“There is funding within this bill that makes sure we can continue to make progress in providing health insurance to all Americans, make sure that we continue with our efforts to combat climate change, that we’re able to expand early childhood education in terms of making a meaningful difference in communities all across the country, that allows us to expand our manufacturing hubs that are contributing to the growth of jobs and the progress we’ve seen in our economy over the last couple of years,” he said. “And so, overall, this legislation allows us to build on the economic progress and the national security progress that’s important.”
The president argued that the compromise was the type of action voters clearly said they wanted in the November midterms.
“I think what the American people very much are looking for is responsible governance and the willingness to compromise,” he said, “and that’s what we’ve clearly done, and so I’m glad it passed the House and I’m hopeful that it will pass the Senate.”
