WEEKLY ADDRESS: Congress Must Act Now to Pass a Budget and Raise the Debt Ceiling

Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address

The White House

September 21, 2013

Video

Hi, everybody.  It was five years ago this week that a financial crisis on Wall Street spread to Main Street, and very nearly turned a recession into a depression. 

In a matter of months, millions of Americans were robbed of their jobs, their homes, their savings – after a decade in which they’d already been working harder and harder to just get by. 

It was a crisis from which we’re still trying to recover.  But thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, we are steadily recovering. 

Over the past three and a half years, our businesses have created seven and a half million new jobs. Our housing market is healing. We’ve become less dependent on foreign oil.  Health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in 50 years.  And in just over a week, millions of Americans without health care will be able to get covered for less than $100 a month. 

So our economy is gaining traction. And we’re finally tackling threats to middle-class prosperity that Washington neglected for far too long.  But as any middle-class family listening right now knows, we’ve got a long way to go to get to where we need to be.  And after five years spent digging out of crisis, the last thing we need is for Washington to manufacture another.

But that’s what will happen in the next few weeks if Congress doesn’t meet two deadlines.

First: the most basic Constitutional duty Congress has is passing a budget.  But if it doesn’t pass one before September 30^th – a week from Monday – the government will shut down.  And so will many services the American people expect.  Military personnel, including those deployed overseas, won’t get their paychecks on time.  Federal loans for rural communities, small business owners, and new home buyers will be frozen.  Critical research into life-saving discoveries and renewable energy will be immediately halted. All of this will be prevented if Congress just passes a budget.

Second: Congress must authorize the Treasury to pay America’s bills.  This is done with a simple, usually routine vote to raise what’s called the debt ceiling.  Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it – Democrats and Republicans, including President Reagan.  And if this Congress doesn’t do it within the next few weeks, the United States will default on its obligations and put our entire economy at risk. 

This is important: raising the debt ceiling is not the same as approving more spending.  It lets us pay for what Congress already spent.  It doesn’t cost a dime, or add a penny to our deficit.  In fact, right now, our deficits are already falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II.  And by the end of this year, we’ll have cut our deficits by more than half since I took office. 

But reducing our deficits and debt isn’t even what the current standoff in Congress is about. 

Now, Democrats and some reasonable Republicans are willing to raise the debt ceiling and pass a sensible budget – one that cuts spending on what we don’t need so we can invest in what we do.  And I want to work with those Democrats and Republicans on a better bargain for the middle class.

But there’s also a faction on the far right of the Republican party who’ve convinced their leadership to threaten a government shutdown if they can’t shut off the Affordable Care Act.  Some are actually willing to plunge America into default if they can’t defund the Affordable Care Act. 

Think about that.  They’d actually plunge this country back into recession – all to deny the basic security of health care to millions of Americans.

Well, that’s not happening.  And they know it’s not happening.

The United States of America is not a deadbeat nation.  We are a compassionate nation.  We are the world’s bedrock investment.  And doing anything to threaten that is the height of irresponsibility.  That’s why I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States.  I will not allow anyone to harm this country’s reputation, or threaten to inflict economic pain on millions of our own people, just to make an ideological point.

So, we are running out of time to fix this.  But we could fix it tomorrow.  Both houses of Congress can take a simple vote to pay our bills on time, then work together to pass a budget on time.

Then we can declare an end to governing by crisis and govern responsibly, by putting our focus back where it should always be – on creating new jobs, growing our economy, and expanding opportunity not just for ourselves, but for future generations.

Thank you.

大家好。五年前的这一周华尔街的金融危机波及“主大街”，几乎把大衰退演变成大萧条。

也就是几个月的功夫，几百万美国人的工作、房子和存款都不翼而飞—他们经过十年比以往更加辛勤的工作却落得个难以维系生活了。

我们仍然在努力走出这次危机。多亏了美国人民的刚毅和决心，我们正在稳步走出危机。

在过去的三年半里，我们的企业已经创造了七百五十万个新就业机会。我们的房地产市场正在回暖。我们已经减少了对进口石油的依赖。医疗费用在以五十年来最低的速度增长。也就是一周的时间，几百万没有医保的美国人就能享受每个月不超过100美元的医保。

所以我们的经济越来越有动力了。我们将最终解除华盛顿长期视而不见的对中产阶级财产的危险。但是正如现在正在聆听的中产阶级家庭所知，我们绕了一个大弯子来达到目的。经过五年艰苦的走出危机的努力，我们最后的一件事成了华盛顿制造另一场危机。

但是在只能在国会不能遵守两个底线的情况下才会在几周后发生。

第一，宪法赋予国会的最基本的职责就是通过一个预算。但是如果他们不在9月30日以前通过一个预算—从周一起一周内—政府就得关门。美国人民所希望的一些服务也如此。军人们，包括部署在海外的军人们，将不能及时领到军饷。给郊外社区、小企业主和新购房者的联邦贷款将被冻结。有关救死扶伤的医学探索和可再生能源的研究将立刻停止。国会通过一个预算就能阻止这些发生。

第二，国会必须授权国库偿还美国的债务。这只需要一个简单的例行公事的投票提高所谓的“债务封顶”即可。自1950年以来，国会一直都通过它，每个总统都把它签署为法律—无论是民主党总统还是共和党总统，包括里根总统。如果本届国会在今后的几周里还不通过，美利坚合众国就会对其责任赖账，使我们的整个经济陷入危机。

重要的是：提高债务封顶不意味着批准更多的开销。而是让我们支付国会已经发生的开销。它不会花一毛钱，或给我们的赤字增加一便士。事实上，迄今为止，我们的赤字正以二战以来最快的速度回落。到今年底，我们就将把赤字削减到我就任时的一半。

但是削减赤字和债务还远不是当前国会对峙的所在。

现在，民主党人和一些理性的共和党人都愿意提高债务封顶并且通过一个合理的预算—一个削减我们不需要的开销使我们你投资于我们需要的的预算。我愿意和这些民主党人和共和党人合作为中产阶级争取一块更大的“蛋糕”。

但是共和党内有一个极右翼派别已经说服他们的领导人如果不能阻止可承受的医保法案就以关闭政府相威胁。有些人打算在他们无法阻止给开承受的医保拨款时就让美国陷入赖账。

想想吧，他们这是要把美国推回衰退—就是不给几百万美国人医保的安全感。

然而这不会发生，他们也知道在不会发生。

美利坚合众国不是一个无赖国家。我们是一个充满同情的国家。我们是世界的中流砥柱。任何威胁到这的行为都是极其不负责任的。这就是为什么我不会就美国的信仰和信誉谈判的原因。我不会允许任何人损害这个国家的美誉，或者以给几百万我们的美国人民造成经济困难来威胁表明一个意识形态的观点。

所以我们正在白白浪费解决问题的时间。都是我们明天就可以解决问题。国会两院可以简单地投票同意按时支付我们的债务，然后合作按时通过一个预算。

然后我们就可以宣布不受危机的摆布和通过把精力重新投放到应该的地方，负责任地领导创造新就业机会和发展经济，不仅为我们自己，也为我们的后代扩大机会。

谢谢。