President Obama on Monday said the controversial budget and spending agreement passed by Congress last week is a “signal of how Washington should work.”
Obama made that comment as he signed the budget deal into law late Monday morning, just a few days after House Speaker Paul Ryan said the process used to arrive at the package “stinks.”
Nonetheless, Obama said the deal showed how Republicans and Democrats “came together to set up a responsible, long-term budget process.”
“I think it is a signal of how Washington should work,” he said. “And my hope is now that they build on this agreement with spending bills that also invest in America’s priorities without getting sidetracked by a whole bunch of ideological issues that have nothing to do with our budget.”
The legislation raises budget caps for the next two years, which will allow Congress to spend $80 billion more. It also suspends the debt ceiling until mid-March of 2017, which will let the government borrow as much as it needs to stay fully in operation.
It also shores up a nearly insolvent Social Security Disability Insurance program by shifting funds from the Social Security trust fund, and prevents a pending increase in Medicare premiums for some seniors.
Obama noted that under the agreement, the new spending would be partly paid for by “making sure that large hedge funds and private equity firms pay what they owe in taxes, just like everybody else.”
He said the two-year timeframe “should finally free us from the cycle of shutdown threats and last-minute fixes.”
Looking ahead, he said he hopes Congress will move appropriations bills that “invest in America’s priorities without getting sidetracked by a whole bunch of ideological issues that have nothing to do with our budget.”
The legislation he signed on Monday is a baseline figure that provides overall funding levels, but Congress still has to pass either individual spending bills or a catchall omnibus to fund the government beyond Dec. 11, when the current continuing resolution expires.
