Will The Republicans Dance To Obama’s Budget Song?

Photo Credit : The Official White House - President Obama. — Photo Credit : The Official White House – President Obama.

“Yesterday, [Friday] we learned that our businesses created another 118,000 new jobs in September. That makes 67 straight months of job creation, and 13.2 million new jobs in all,” the President asserted at the start of his weekly address.

He further said, “We would be doing even better if we didn’t have to keep dealing with crises in Congress every few months. And especially at a time when the global economy is softening, our own growth could slow if Congress doesn’t do away with harmful austerity measures.”

In addition, the president noted that for the second time in two years the Republicans in Congress were prepared to shut down the government. He said however, that the country was lucky this time around to avoid the shut down because Congress managed to scrape enough votes to pass a last minute bill to keep the government going for a short period.

He described the passing of the last minute bill as nothing but a gimmick, a game, the country can ill afford.

He bemoaned the fact that what this does is set the government up for another shutdown, within a few weeks before Christmas.

“Look, that’s not the way America should operate. It just kicks the can down the road without solving any problems or doing any long-term planning for the future. And that’s why I will not sign another shortsighted, short-term spending bill like the one Congress sent me this week,” the President declared.

He further argued that an earlier agreement between both parties has hamstrung the government, not only in preventing faster economic growth, but also undermining the middle class.

He stated that the mindless cuts that currently obtain are having a crippling effect on government plans.

“If we don’t undo these mindless cuts, then next year, we’ll be funding our kids’ education at the same levels per pupil we did in the year 2000. Compared to my budget, that would be like cutting federal funding for 4,500 schools, 17,500 teachers and aides, 1.9 million students,” he said.

The President noted that the current status quo is short sighted and unbecoming of a country that boasts American “exceptionalism.”

He urged Congress to do its job, stop kicking the can down the road, and pass a serious budget rather than flirt with another shutdown.