In his weekly address released by the White House on Saturday, President Obama again urged far right congressional republicans to stop playing political games with the economy and to work with democrats and moderate republicans in Congress in order to pass the federal budget as well as to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
Unless a 2014 budget or at least a stopgap measure to extend the existing budget is passed by September 30, the government will shut down starting October 1, stopping or slowing vital services and earned entitlements and wages which many Americans need to live, such as military pay and Social Security.
In addition, the nation is quickly approaching its debt ceiling limit, most likely reaching it by mid to late October. A failure to pass the debt ceiling in a timely manner will undermine the credit rating of America, perhaps lowing the nation’s credit rating once again as it did when republicans used a similar tactic to leverage their questionable economic proposals back in the summer of 2011.
While some moderate republicans are willing to work with democrats in order to accomplish these necessary tasks, House republicans on the far right of the political spectrum have hijacked the process, extorting the financial future well-being of the nation in order to leverage a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
In the address, President Obama remarked of this vast majority of republicans in the House of Representatives, “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,” he added.
However, unwilling to yield to those GOP demands which would ultimately cripple the economy and potentially devastate the health of millions of Americans, the President continued, “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.”
Although Congress mandates and has always passed an increase in the debt ceiling when needed, such an action may not be required as Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment specifically states, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law … shall not be questioned."
