–Irresponsible to Continue to Fund Govt Two Weeks at a Time

By Heather Scott

WASHINGTON (MNI) – President Barack Obama said Friday both sides in
Congress must compromise on their budget goals and finish work on the
2011 fiscal year spending program that officially began Oct. 1, 2010.

He said it is irresponsible to continue to fund the government with
two-week stop-gap measures.

Noting that both GOP and Democratic budget proposals failed to win
approval, “both sides are going to have to sit down and compromise on
prudent cuts somewhere between what the Republicans were seeking that’s
now been rejected and what the Democrats had agreed to that has also
been rejected,” Obama said in a news conference. “It shouldn’t be that
complicated.”

While the Hill may need to pass one more short-term continuing
resolution to fund government operations while complete work on the
current year’s budget, he said “our expectation is, is that we should be
able to get this completed.”

He said “the notion that we can’t get resolved last year’s budget
in a sensible way with serious but prudent spending cuts I think defies
common sense. So we should be able to get it done.”

However, Obama stressed again that while he agrees with the need to
reduce deficits and to cut funding for programs that do not work, there
are certain areas where he will draw that line, including programs like
Pell grants for college students, and funding for Head Start for poor
preschoolers.

“The principle that I’ve tried to put forward since the State of
the Union is we’ve got to live within our means, we’ve got to get
serious about managing our budget, but we can’t stop investing in our
people. We can’t stop investing in research and development. We can’t
stop investing in infrastructure — those things that are going to make
us competitive over the long term and will help us win the future.”

He also said Republicans should “not try to sneak political agendas
into a budget debate” through riders on the bills. “Don’t try to use
the budget as a way to promote a political or ideological agenda,” he
said.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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