Obama says he won't sign another "short-sighted" spending bill
President Obama said Congress cannot flirt with another government shutdown, and although he just signed a resolution to fund the government until mid-December, he issued a veto threat.
"I will not sign another short-sighted spending bill like the one Congress sent me this week."
During a press conference Friday, he said of the short-term resolution passed and signed this week, "We purchased another 10 additional weeks. We need to use them effectively." And he admonished Congress to consider the long-term planning needs of the country for both military and non-military spending.
"We can grow faster and the economy can improve if Congress acts with dispatch. It will get worse if they don't," he said.
The president also sought to put a positive spin on some dismal economy news out this week, that the economy fell short of the 200,000 jobs projected for September, adding only 142,000 jobs. Mr. Obama pointed out that the economy had seen 67 straight months of job growth.
The unemployment rate remained unchanged - it remained at 5.1 percent, but the labor force participation rate fell again, and wage growth remained flat.
The nation's borrowing authority also came up during the news conference - it's due to run out Nov. 5, according to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. Mr. Obama flatly rejected the idea that the debt limit could be used in upcoming negotiations with Congress. "When it comes to the debt ceiling, we're not going back there," he said. "Historically, we do not mess with it."
And, he continued, "We're not going to negotiate on that. It has to get done in the next five weeks."
The president believes that "there's a path raises spending caps above sequester...that maintains a prudent control of our deficits and that we can do that in short order. It's not that complicated. The math is the math." Sequestration cuts have held spending down since 2011.
He called on Republicans to "try to leave out extraneous issues," like Planned Parenthood defunding. While the president said he understood the strong feelings they hold about the group, they couldn't allow that single issue to potentially "wreck the U.S. economy."
Mr. Obama compared their strong feelings about Planned Parenthood to his own feelings about gun safety and immigration and said that he would not hold the debt ceiling hostage over those issues.
He added, "They want to defund Planned Parenthood? There's a way to do that. Pass a law. Override my veto. But you have to govern."