President Obama reiterated Saturday that he will not sign any additional short-term bills to keep the government funded and that Congress must do away with the budget caps.
On Wednesday, over 151 Republicans voted against a continuing-resolution that will keep the government funded until Dec. 11. “Fortunately, there were enough votes in both parties to pass a last-minute bill to keep the government open for another ten weeks,” said Obama in his weekly address. “Unfortunately, that gimmick only sets up another shutdown threat two weeks before Christmas.”
“Look, that’s not the way America should operate,” he said. “It just kicks the can down the road without solving any problems or doing any long-term planning for the future.”
“Congress should do its job, stop kicking the can down the road, and pass a serious budget rather than flirt with another shutdown,” said Obama, recommending that Congress pass “a serious budget” that funds the military, law enforcement, veterans and seniors, and educates “our kids and our workers.”
In 2011, Congress agreed to indiscriminate, automatic cuts across-the-board on both the military and social programs. Democrats now want to remove the sequestration caps and increase spending. While Republicans may agree to increase spending on the military, Republicans do not want to increase spending in other areas, which will lead to another fight in Congress just before Christmas.
Obama called the 2011 cuts “harmful” and “mindless” because he said automatic cuts “make no distinction between spending we don’t need and spending we do.”
“Those cuts have actually kept our economy from growing faster. Even worse, they’re actually undermining the middle class,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will hold budget negotiations with the White House “soon,” McConnell said earlier this week.
The federal government will hit a legal debt limit and be unable to borrow more money around Nov. 5, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned on Thursday.
