Sunday, October 6, 2013

Obama on the Government Shutdown





Obama on the Government Shutdown

John Harwood of CNBC and The Times interviewed President Obama, who said he was not prepared to negotiate until he was presented with a “clean bill.”


Published on Oct 2, 2013
Credit - BBC & CNBC

Obama Doesn't Rule Out Using 14th Amendment To Raise The Debt Limit
By Mary Bruce |
Saturday, October 6th 2013
ABC News – 20 hours ago
With the October 17 deadline to raise the debt limit rapidly approaching, President Obama is not specifically ruling out using the 14th Amendment to increase the nation's borrowing ability if the political impasse continues and Congress fails to do so, but says he does not expect the fight to get to that point.
"I'm pretty willing to bet that there are enough votes in the House of Representatives right now to make sure that the United States doesn't end up being a deadbeat. The only thing that's preventing that from happening is Speaker Boehner calling the vote," the president told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that was released this morning.
Four days into the government shutdown, the president reiterated that he is not going to make concessions on his signature health care law or negotiate with House Republicans until they agree to reopen the government and raise the nation's debt ceiling.
"The only thing that is keeping that from happening is Speaker Boehner has made a decision that he is going to hold out to see if he can get additional concessions from us," Obama told the Associated Press' Julie Pace.
"What I've said to him is we are happy to negotiate on anything," he continued. "But what we can't do is keep engaging in this sort of brinksmanship where a small faction of the Republican Party ends up forcing them into brinksmanship to see if they can somehow get more from negotiations by threatening to shut down the government or threatening America not paying its bills."
The president went on to criticize some Tea Party Republicans for seeking out controversy.
"I recognize that in today's media age, being controversial, taking controversial positions, rallying the most extreme parts of your base - whether it's left or right - is a lot of times the fastest way to get attention or raise money, but it's not good for government. It's not good for the people we're supposed to be serving," he said.
 
 
 
 
 
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Republicans see shutdown fight shift away from 'Obamacare'
Saturday, October 6th 2013
AFP….Michael Mathes 13 hours ago
Republicans acknowledged Saturday that ending the US government shutdown requires a new game plan.
A handful of Tea Party-supported conservatives have publicly backed off that fight, that their energy quivering against Obamacare has not been successful, but instead, caused deep rifts within the Republican Party. They feel there is need to move on to the larger issues with need to focus strictly on fiscal debt ceiling of the overall budget issues.
congressman Doug Lamborn told reporters during a rare weekend session for the House of Representatives. He was joined by congressman Dennis Ross, another favorite of the anti-tax, pro-small-government Tea Party movement. "We're so close to the debt ceiling that I think the two will continue to be combined as we go forward."
The White House has held firm that it will accept no changes to the Affordable Care Act, and Ross appeared frustrated with his party's failure to adapt to the political reality that linking Obamacare with the funding of government would be a non-starter; dismissing that, "The Obamacare battle I think will live to be fought another day."
Americans steam over Congress's inability to keep government open made some Republicans to seek an escape hatch, to the point of even bucking leadership, to identify in advance some solution set that could draw enough bipartisan support for reopening government and raising the debt ceiling.

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