http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/12/obama-this-is-not-normal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_politicalticker+%28Blog%3A+Political+Ticker%29 October 12th, 2013
06:00 AM ET
9 hours ago
Obama: “This is not normal”
Posted by
CNN's Gabe LaMonica
Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama on Saturday said House Republican agreement over the need to raise the debt ceiling and reopen the government, without agreement over how long, was a “positive development.”
Both Houses of the United States Congress are in session this weekend, and in his weekly address, Obama told members of the House and Senate to “pass a budget, put people back to work, and end this shutdown.”
The President, who updated a group of nearly 150 top U.S. business leaders on Friday on the conversations he has had at the White House since Wednesday on reopening the government and removing the threat of default on the nation’s credit, said small-business owners have “lost contracts, lost customers, and put hiring on hold” as a trickle down result of the partial government shutdown.
President Obama said “it wouldn’t be wise,” to temporarily raise the debt ceiling. “Kicking the debt ceiling can down the road for a couple months” would damage “America’s sterling credit rating,” he said. The GOP House has proposed raising the debt ceiling for six weeks, and though the United States lost its Standard and Poor’s triple-A credit rating more than two years ago - on August 5, 2011 - Obama called it unwise to “flirt with a first-ever intentional default right in the middle of the holiday shopping season.”
“This is not normal,” said the President, who implored the American people to remember that “politics is a battle of ideas, but you advance those ideas through elections and legislation – not extortion.”
Then he said it again: “This is not normal.”
