US President Obama telephoned Speaker John Boehner from the Oval Office late on Tuesday morning, and reiterated his readiness to negotiate with Republicans over policies that Republicans think would strengthen the country once the threat of government shutdown and default have been removed, the White House said in a statement.
The president also repeated his willingness to negotiate on priorities that he has identified including policies that expand economic opportunity, support private sector job creation, enhance the competitiveness of American businesses, strengthen the Affordable Care Act and continue to reduce the nation’s deficit, the White House statement said.
The president urged the Speaker to hold a vote in the House of Representatives on the Senate-passed measure that would re-open the federal government immediately, it said.
“Citing the Senate’s intention to pass a clean, year-long extension of the debt limit this week, the president also pressed Boehner to allow a timely up-or-down vote in the House to raise the debt limit with no ideological strings attached,” the statement added.
The president noted that only the Congress has the authority to raise the debt limit and failure to do so would have grave consequences for middle class families and the American economy as a whole, the statement added.
Obama urged on Tuesday for a vote in the US House of Representatives to extend and raise the debt limit and pass a budget to end the week-long political and financial stalemate.
Speaking at a press briefing in the White House, Obama said they could not get serious positions from the Republicans at the US House and the Congress to enable to actually resolve some core differences over the government crisis.
He denounced the Republicans for rejecting 19 times the call of Senate Democrats to join a budget conference committee over the last six months to hash out a budget.
But “just to keep the government open,” the Senate passed a budget “at Republican levels,” Obama said, for the Senate-passed measure that would re-open the shut-down federal government immediately.
“Let’s lift these threats from our families and our businesses and let’s get back to work. What we haven’t been able to get are serious positions from the Republicans,” he told the press, aiming at the Republicans.
“As soon as the Congress votes to reopen the government, it’s also got to vote to meet our country’s commitments, pay our bills, raise the debt ceiling, because as reckless as a government shutdown is, the economic shutdown caused by America defaulting would be dramatically worse,” said Obama.
He noted that only the US Congress had the authority to raise the debt limit and failure to do so “will have grave consequences for middle class families and the American economy as a whole.”
“If Congress refuses to raise what’s called the debt ceiling, America would not be able to meet all of our financial obligations for the first time in 225 years,” noted Obama.
Obama argued that the “Republican obsession with dismantling the Affordable Care Act and denying healthcare to millions of people” led the US federal government shutdown.
He also claimed that if the markets saw that the government is half-paying that would affect US credit-worthiness, too.
Rebuffing the perception that he is unwilling to negotiate, Obama stated that he would sit down to work with anyone of any party.
“I’ve shown myself willing to go more than halfway in these conversations.”
He noted that some things are non-negotiable, touching upon the disagreements between the parties, as he described them as “divided on a whole big bunch of big issues.”
“We’re not going to pay a ransom for America paying its bills. That’s something that should be non-negotiable,” he said.
Obama also remarked on the impacts of the budget crisis and the following political standoff on American people, saying the “sequestration has hurt families.”
“Because of sequestration, because of the meat cleaver cuts, thousands of families have lost head start slots for their children and thousands scrambling to find decent child care,” he said.
He apologized to all the American people that “you have to go through this stuff every three months,” adding that American people are tired of it.
“My message to the world is, the United States has always paid its bills and will do so again.”
Anatolia News Agency
