End brinkmanship and pass spending bill, urges Obama

Washington (AFP) - As the US government careened toward a potentially devastating shutdown, President Barack Obama urged intransigent lawmakers to end their brinkmanship and pass a spending bill.

But with barely 72 hours before agencies are forced to close their doors Tuesday and more than a million US troops remain on duty without pay, Congress appeared no closer to resolution of a fiscal crisis that looms over Washington and the nation.

And Republicans driving the agenda in the House of Representatives, which will hold an emergency session Saturday to consider legislation to keep the government open, appeared to struggle over the way forward.

The president hailed the Senate for clearing a stopgap federal funding measure Friday that knocked the ball into the House's court, where a diehard conservative faction is bent on thwarting Obama's health care law.

The Republican-led lower chamber will likely tweak the bill and send it back to the Senate, which could leave insufficient time for the legislation to pass both chambers before a fiscal year-end deadline of midnight Monday.

"Over the next three days, House Republicans will have to decide whether to join the Senate and keep the government open or shut it down because they can't get their way," Obama said.

Republicans, overwhelmingly opposed to so-called Obamacare, inserted a provision in the House measure that strips funding for the health care law, but the Democratic-led Senate removed it and sent the bill back.

Some Republicans would now like to see the health care law fight shift to the next fiscal battle -- over the debt ceiling.

The Treasury says it will reach its $16.7 trillion borrowing cap by October 17, and if Congress does not raise it the country will default on its debts for the first time in history.

The president said a default "would have a profound destabilizing effect on the entire economy -- on the world economy."

"We've got to break this cycle," Obama added. "My message to Congress is this: do not shut down the government. Do not shut down the economy. Pass a budget on time. Pay our bills on time."

With the mere threat of a shutdown likely having "a dampening effect on the economy," Obama suggested it was time for House Speaker John Boehner to isolate the "extremists" who are holding the Republican Party captive.

But that had yet to happen. The leadership of the House was crafting a bill that would raise the debt limit, delay the health care law's implementation by one year, greenlight the controversial Keystone oil pipeline and lower taxes for the wealthy.

Obama said he is willing to negotiate on such issues, "but we're not going to do this under the threat of blowing up the entire economy."

"Nobody gets to threaten the full faith and credit of the United States just to extract political concessions," Obama said.

House leaders insist they do not want a shutdown or a default, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said his chamber's bill was the only one that could prevent a shutdown.

"This is it. Time is gone," Reid said after the Senate voted along strict party lines to approve federal funding until November 15.

The Democrat also challenged Boehner to schedule a House vote on the stripped-down budget bill, saying it would pass "overwhelmingly if the speaker had the courage to bring it to the floor."

"I think they should think very carefully about their next step," Reid added.

Some Republicans have spoken out about their conservative colleagues' strategy, warning of a backlash should government shut down.

"If anybody creates a process where our military doesn't get paid, and their families, they're going to make an enemy ... of me for life," Senator Lindsey Graham fumed to Roll Call.

As the clock ticks down, Republicans stressed that Obama was merely commenting from the sidelines, not meeting with or even calling Boehner this week to thrash out a compromise.

"Grandstanding from the president, who refuses to even be a part of the process, won't bring Congress any closer to a resolution," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said.

With Congress and the White House feuding, the Pentagon announced worrying details of how a stoppage would effect the department.

It said the military's 1.4 million troops will remain on duty in the event of a shutdown, but not get paid until Congress appropriated funds to compensate them.

And if government agencies close, half the Defense Department's nearly 800,000 civilian workers would be ordered to stay home.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-statement-amid-fiscal-crisis-192241197.html

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