Congress Must Act Now to Pass a Budget and Raise the Debt
Ceiling
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/09/21/weekly-address-congress-must-act-now-pass-budget-and-raise-debt-ceiling?utm_source=snapshot&utm_medium=email&utm_content=092113-topper
In his weekly address, President Obama says the economy is
making progress five years after the worst recession since the Great
Depression, but to avoid another crisis, Congress must meet two deadlines in
the coming weeks: pass a budget by the end of the month to keep the government
open, and raise the debt ceiling so America can pay its bills. Congress should
vote to do these now, so that we can keep creating new jobs and expanding
opportunity for the middle class.
Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
September 21, 2013
Hi, everybody. It was
five years ago this week that a financial crisis on Wall Street spread to Main Street, and
very nearly turned a recession into a depression.
In a matter of months, millions of Americans were robbed of
their jobs, their homes, their savings – after a decade in which they’d already
been working harder and harder to just get by.
It was a crisis from which we’re still trying to
recover. But thanks to the grit and
determination of the American people, we are steadily recovering.
Over the past three and a half years, our businesses have
created seven and a half million new jobs. Our housing market is healing. We’ve
become less dependent on foreign oil.
Health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in 50 years. And in just over a week, millions of
Americans without health care will be able to get covered for less than $100 a
month.
So our economy is gaining traction. And we’re finally
tackling threats to middle-class prosperity that Washington neglected for far too long. But as any middle-class family listening
right now knows, we’ve got a long way to go to get to where we need to be. And after five years spent digging out of
crisis, the last thing we need is for Washington
to manufacture another.
But that’s what will happen in the next few weeks if
Congress doesn’t meet two deadlines.
First: the most basic Constitutional duty Congress has is
passing a budget. But if it doesn’t pass
one before September 30th – a week from Monday – the government will shut
down. And so will many services the
American people expect. Military
personnel, including those deployed overseas, won’t get their paychecks on
time. Federal loans for rural
communities, small business owners, and new home buyers will be frozen. Critical research into life-saving
discoveries and renewable energy will be immediately halted. All of this will
be prevented if Congress just passes a budget.
Second: Congress must authorize the Treasury to pay America’s
bills. This is done with a simple,
usually routine vote to raise what’s called the debt ceiling. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed
it, and every President has signed it – Democrats and Republicans, including
President Reagan. And if this Congress
doesn’t do it within the next few weeks, the United States will default on its
obligations and put our entire economy at risk.
This is important: raising the debt ceiling is not the same
as approving more spending. It lets us
pay for what Congress already spent. It
doesn’t cost a dime, or add a penny to our deficit. In fact, right now, our deficits are already
falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. And by the end of this year, we’ll have cut
our deficits by more than half since I took office.
But reducing our deficits and debt isn’t even what the
current standoff in Congress is about.
Now, Democrats and some reasonable Republicans are willing
to raise the debt ceiling and pass a sensible budget – one that cuts spending
on what we don’t need so we can invest in what we do. And I want to work with those Democrats and
Republicans on a better bargain for the middle class.
But there’s also a faction on the far right of the
Republican party who’ve convinced their leadership to threaten a government
shutdown if they can’t shut off the Affordable Care Act. Some are actually willing to plunge America
into default if they can’t defund the Affordable Care Act.
Think about that.
They’d actually plunge this country back into recession – all to deny
the basic security of health care to millions of Americans.
Well, that’s not happening.
And they know it’s not happening.
The United
States of America is not a deadbeat
nation. We are a compassionate
nation. We are the world’s bedrock
investment. And doing anything to
threaten that is the height of irresponsibility. That’s why I will not negotiate over the full
faith and credit of the United
States.
I will not allow anyone to harm this country’s reputation, or threaten
to inflict economic pain on millions of our own people, just to make an
ideological point.
So, we are running out of time to fix this. But we could fix it tomorrow. Both houses of Congress can take a simple
vote to pay our bills on time, then work together to pass a budget on time.
Then we can declare an end to governing by crisis and govern
responsibly, by putting our focus back where it should always be – on creating
new jobs, growing our economy, and expanding opportunity not just for
ourselves, but for future generations.
Thank you.