WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Obama said 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.
“Our economy is gaining traction,” the President said. “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.”
The President said Congress must meet two objectives: Pass a budget and raise the debt ceiling.
“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,” Mr. Obama warned.
He also warned the not raising the debt ceiling would cause problems, as well. “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.”
Watch video:
httpv://youtu.be/-my9hVoGv2M
I would rather see the government shut down then raise the debt ceiling without very serious and meaningful spending cuts. We have several government agencies that we could completely eliminate, we could quit giving money to terrorist(Obama just waived that restriction), We could quit with all federal grants. There is so much we could do and it is sad to think very few in congress have the will to do it.
@Tim-The problem I see is that they never cut the programs they should cut. Special interest takes over along with pet projects. The Republicans are as bad at this as the Democrats. They all want the other guy to give up stuff while they keep everything.
Obama said “since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, (raising debt ceiling) and every President has signed it – Democrats and Republicans, including President Reagan.”
Well guess what Obama, we out here in fly-over country have simply had enough of this nonsense. It is time for you and congress to quit kicking the can down the road and fix the disparity between the income and out go of the federal government.
Due to your inept administration and insisting the opposition knuckle under to your demands without any changes on your side we have reached this impasse. We do not want the Fed printing any more money to cover your sorry excuse of governance.
Get ready for a rough ride.
One of the primary components of conservatism is opposing change and retaining traditional social institutions, and where some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, others called reactionaries oppose modernism and seek a return to “the way things were.” It is safe to say that Republicans, as conservatives, hate change and resist progress because it is too far beyond the scope of their cognitive abilities to adapt. When they are presented with change out of their control they become reactionaries and inherently seek reverting to a by-gone era that never existed except in their limited minds. It is curious that Republicans so opposed to change reacted to the election of the first African American President by changing a long-standing Constitutional mandate that Congress pay the nation’s debts without question, or without demands to enact their legislative agenda.
The idea of a president having to negotiate with Congress before they do their Constitutional duty of paying the debt they incurred is Republicans reacting to Americans’ choice of a Black man as President.
Of course it is Obama’s fault. He is the one that refuses to even discuss cutting expenses. It just doesn’t fit in with his liberal agenda that want to GIVE money to people so they will vote for him or his ideas.
He has given billions to the muslim brotherhood in lybia, Egypt, Syria. Not only don’t we have the money, he is giving money to our sworn enemies. If you look up that definition it will say giving aide and comfort to the enemy/treason.
House of Representatives should pass an obscenely huge budget, like $30 trillion huge, just to see if the democrats have the nerve to support it in the Senate.
As I remember it, we have not had a budget since this joker has been in office.
Here’s a strange thought for the spend o crats. Quit running up the debt with give away programs for your dead beat voters.
Weren’t we told years ago by this administration that they needed the ceiling raised to keep the government running and buy them time to fix our budget and debt problems? Here we are years later hearing the same message, with zero progress towards fixing our spending problems or debt issues. If Obama was intent on fixing things, why are we facing the same problems today that he blamed the prior administration for 5 years ago?
And using the excuse that we must raise it now so we can pay for what is already spent is ridiculous. Imagine calling your credit card company to say they must raise your credit limit because you just spent a lot more money and will need them to pay for it. The big spender and chief, Barack Obama, has no idea how to budget, or run a government. He has had five years to prove it, and has failed.
@Anonymous-Good Post- and you are correct.
You’ve got the analogy wrong here, it’s not like calling to ask for a raised credit limit. It’s like calling and telling them you’re not going to pay your bill for things you’ve already bought. How do you think your credit rating would fair then?
We are currently in a situation where we have virtually no choice but to raise the debt ceiling. It sucks and I don’t necessarily agree with all the decisions the president has made, but if we default again it’ll be catastrophic. Of course I’m sure that’ll be spun to be Obama’s fault too.
So you prefer the “head in the sand” approach. Which is exactly my point. This is the same excuse we heard oh so many years ago from this same president. Please raise the ceiling to buy me time to fix our budget. Almost a year into his second term, and nothing has changed. And yet Obama and his followers still manage to try to blame the Republicans for the budget crisis. Nevermind that the Democrats have now had 7 years to come forward with an actual functioning budget, and have failed to do so.