http://thehill.com/policy/finance/255806-obama-i-will-not-sign-another-short-term-spending-bill By Peter Schroeder - 10/02/15 04:10 PM EDT
President Obama vowed Friday that he would not sign another short-term funding measure, pushing lawmakers to craft a long-term budget agreement.
Speaking to the press two days after signing a two-month continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down, Obama said that would be the last he is willing to tolerate. Government funding is now set to expire Dec. 11 after the latest agreement.
“I want to be very clear, I will not sign another shortsighted spending bill like the one Congress sent me this week,” he said. “We purchased ourselves 10 additional weeks. We need to use them effectively.”
Obama went on to call on policymakers to find a way to undo the sequester cuts currently in place, arguing they were holding back a U.S. economy that may be seeing its recovery faltering.
“These cuts that have been maintained have been keeping our economy from growing faster. It’s time to undo them,” he said.
“The bottom line is that Congress has to do its job,” he added.
The president's remarks up the pressure on congressional negotiators to craft some sort of broader budget package in the weeks leading up to the next deadline. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Obama have entered into initial talks on that front.
Earlier Friday, the Labor Department reported that that the U.S. added only 142,000 jobs in September, well below economist expectations. Friday’s report marked the second in a row to miss the mark, and revised figures showed gains in July and August were also more modest than originally estimated.
