President Obama lost patience Saturday with Senate Republicans who have insisted that a $100 billion spending package be paid for so that it does not add to the deficit, accusing the GOP of “dreary and familiar politics” that threaten the nation’s future.
“Gridlock as a political strategy is destructive to the country,” Obama said in his weekly address, slamming the GOP for blocking the package that would extend unemployment benefits and assistance to states for Medicaid, among other things.
The “extenders bill,” as it is known, failed to gain enough votes twice this week to overcome a Republican filibuster. The inability of Democratic leaders to pass the bill is evidence that the nation’s debt and deficits are now dominating policymaking on Capitol Hill.
Obama said that Republicans who have insisted the package be offset by spending cuts or by taking money from the stimulus fund are playing a cynical political game and accused them of not allowing a vote on the bill.
But Republicans filibustering the bill have been joined by Democrats. And Republicans have also offered alternative versions of the bill that would pay for the spending.
“Republicans are blocking these bills because they know our nation won’t survive if we continue to spend and borrow beyond our means,” said John Hart, spokesman for Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican.
Democrats have fiercely resisted being forced to pay for some things, such as extending unemployment insurance.
“Rarely, if ever, do we pay for extensions of unemployment insurance benefits,” a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in March.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said “the choice isn’t between passing a bill or not — it’s whether or not we add tens of billions more to the debt in the process.”
“Americans want us to show we’re serious about lowering the debt, so the President and his allies in Congress have a choice to make: they can either vote to reduce the deficit, or they can lock arms and dig an even deeper hole of debt when most Americans think $13 trillion is far too much already,” McConnell said.
Numerous Capitol Hill sources told The Daily Caller that Reid was likely to pull the extenders bill all together from the floor and come back with a scaled down, less expensive piece of legislation, possibly as early as Monday.
This is the second time in the last week that Obama has called on Congress to pass legislation that would bypass pay-as-you-go rules, which were passed into law in February but have largely been ignored. Last Saturday, Obama sent a letter to congressional leaders pressuring them to pass a separate $50 billion bill supporting public school systems and helping community banks lend to small businesses.
Obama assured lawmakers in the letter that he is taking some steps to address the nation’s debt problems now and will do more in the future.
