Obama signs sweeping US budget cuts into effect
The BBC's Mark Mardell in Washington says the cuts were designed to be so brutally painful that politicians would be forced to agree on a better way of balancing the books. However, as the deadline loomed on Friday, Mr Obama and Republican congressional leaders still failed to agree on a way to avoid them. Obama has insisted on replacing the cuts, known as a "sequester" in government budget language, with tax increases and cuts spread out over time. Republicans have rejected any plan that included tax revenue. Let's make it clear that the president got his tax hikes on 1 January, he said as he left the White House.The discussion about revenue, in my view, is over. It's about taking on the spending problem.
Correspondents say attention will now turn to the next congressional challenge - a possible shutdown of the US government if no funding bill is passed in the next month. After the White House talks broke up, Mr Obama had earlier blamed the austerity time bomb on Republicans, who refused to close tax loopholes for the rich and corporations combined with more targeted spending cuts, in his "balanced" approach to deficit reduction. At the same time they clashed, Obama and Republicans appeared determined to contain their disagreement. Boehner said the House will pass legislation next week to extend routine funding for government agencies beyond the current March 27 expiration. "I'm hopeful that we won't have to deal with the threat of a government shutdown while we're dealing with the sequester at the same time," he said, referring to the new cuts by their Washington-speak name,
He warned the cuts - if fully realised - would slow US economic growth by half of 1% and cost 750,000 jobs.In the coming days and the coming weeks, I'm going to keeping on reaching out to them -- both individually and as groups of senators or members of the House -- and say to them, 'Let's fix this, not just for a month or two, but for years to come,' because the greatest nation on Earth does not conduct its business in month-to-month increments or by careening from crisis to crisis," Obama said.
Tags:ECONOMY,WHITE HOUSE
The BBC's Mark Mardell in Washington says the cuts were designed to be so brutally painful that politicians would be forced to agree on a better way of balancing the books. However, as the deadline loomed on Friday, Mr Obama and Republican congressional leaders still failed to agree on a way to avoid them. Obama has insisted on replacing the cuts, known as a "sequester" in government budget language, with tax increases and cuts spread out over time. Republicans have rejected any plan that included tax revenue. Let's make it clear that the president got his tax hikes on 1 January, he said as he left the White House.The discussion about revenue, in my view, is over. It's about taking on the spending problem.
Correspondents say attention will now turn to the next congressional challenge - a possible shutdown of the US government if no funding bill is passed in the next month. After the White House talks broke up, Mr Obama had earlier blamed the austerity time bomb on Republicans, who refused to close tax loopholes for the rich and corporations combined with more targeted spending cuts, in his "balanced" approach to deficit reduction. At the same time they clashed, Obama and Republicans appeared determined to contain their disagreement. Boehner said the House will pass legislation next week to extend routine funding for government agencies beyond the current March 27 expiration. "I'm hopeful that we won't have to deal with the threat of a government shutdown while we're dealing with the sequester at the same time," he said, referring to the new cuts by their Washington-speak name,
He warned the cuts - if fully realised - would slow US economic growth by half of 1% and cost 750,000 jobs.In the coming days and the coming weeks, I'm going to keeping on reaching out to them -- both individually and as groups of senators or members of the House -- and say to them, 'Let's fix this, not just for a month or two, but for years to come,' because the greatest nation on Earth does not conduct its business in month-to-month increments or by careening from crisis to crisis," Obama said.
Tags:ECONOMY,WHITE HOUSE
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