President Obama has vowed not to sign government funding bills that keep in place spending caps favored by Republicans, setting up a showdown as Congress works toward passing a budget.
In an interview with the Huffington Post published Saturday, Obama flatly promised not to sign any spending bills that keep in place the across-the-board statutory spending caps that were enacted as the result of bruising negotiations between Republicans and Obama over the debt ceiling.
Asked if he would sign a bill that kept the caps in place, Obama responded, “I will not, and I’ve been very clear.”
The White House has previously said that it will not stand for government funding bills that keep spending on both defense and non-defense programs at the caps, but Obama’s remarks published Saturday drew a bright line that Republicans will be likely to test.
Both the Senate and House Republican budgets introduced last week kept spending at the caps for fiscal year 2016, although they would provide added defense spending through a war account not subject to the caps.
Obama called the GOP budgets a “classic trickle-down, top-down approach to economics” that would result in cuts to education and health care.
In his own budget, Obama suggested lifting the defense and non-defense caps by nearly equal amounts of $38 billion for 2016. He has called for a deal with Republicans to lift both caps for the year and make up for the added spending by cutting spending or raising revenues in later years.
Obama is less willing to negotiate deficit cuts than in previous years, he said, because “circumstances changed.” The U.S. now has lower annual deficits and stronger economic growth.
“Now’s the time for us to make sure that we are making the investments we need to continue to grow and to keep our country safe,” the president said, calling on Republicans to “plus-up” spending.
