‘There are no winners’: Obama says shutdown and threat of default damaged US reputation

As the US government went back to work for its first fully operational day in over two weeks, President Barack Obama addressed the nation Thursday morning from the White House, chastising Republican lawmakers who led the country so close to default.

Hours after authorizing a deal that allowed the US government to
open back up for business, Obama laid into those congressional
Republicans who allowed the country’s economic reputation to be
severely tarnished by turning a legislative stalemate into a
national crisis.

Obama said the Wednesday night deal allowed the government to
re-open while also momentarily raising the debt ceiling, in turn
ensuring “the first default in more than 200 years will not
happen.”

The government shutdown, triggered October 1 by a budget dispute
in Congress, shuttered several federal agencies and sent hundreds
of thousands of government employees home on furlough, while
lawmakers were urged to come to a compromise. Had Congress failed
to reach an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, Obama warned
previously, the consequences would “catastrophic.”

Discussing the reopening of the government Thursday, Obama said
the US economy had been set back significantly during the weeks
of the shutdown and has lost much ground as a result of the
crisis.

“There’s been a lot of discussion lately on the politics of
this shutdown, but let’s be clear: there are no winners
here,” said the president. “These last few weeks have
inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy. We don’t
know yet the full scope of the damage, but every analyst out
there believes it slowed our growth.”

And while the debt ceiling agreement reached late Wednesday in
conjunction with a budget deal saved the country from default,
Obama said the lack of leadership in Congress and the subsequent
stalemate had hurt the American economy nevertheless.

“Just the threat of default, of America not paying all the
bills that we owe on time, increased our borrowing costs, which
adds to our deficit,” Obama said.

The president added it was “not a surprise” that Americans
are “completely fed up with Washington,” and insisted
“there was no economic rationale for all of this.”

“Over the past four years, our economy has been growing, our
businesses have been creating jobs and our deficits have been cut
in half. We hear some members who pushed for the shutdown say
they were doing it to save the American economy, but nothing has
done more to undermine our economy these past three years then
these kinds of tactics,” Obama said.

He also said the tactics used by House Republicans had emboldened
America’s competitors and depressed “our friends who look to
us for steady leadership.”

Nevertheless, Obama insisted in his address “that the full
faith and credit of the United States remains unquestioned.”

“But to all my friends in Congress,” said the president,
“understand that how business is done in this town has to
change. Because we’ve all got a lot of work to do on behalf of
the American people and that includes the hard work of regaining
their trust. Our system of self-government doesn’t function
without it.”

The stalemate at the start of the month occurred after
Republicans refused to approval a budget plan that would include
the president’s Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it commonly
known, a health insurance mandate that has managed to become one
of the most controversial elements of Obama’s two terms in
office.

As the Republicans finally caved in late Wednesday, House Speaker
John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters, “We fought the good
fight,” adding, “We just didn’t win.”

Addressing the differences between his own Democratic Party and
the GOP, Obama urged lawmakers on both side of the aisle Thursday
to no longer let partisan issues polarize Congress to such a
degree that catastrophe occurs.

“I understand we will not suddenly agree on everything now
that the cloud of crisis has passed. Democrats and Republicans
are far apart on a lot of issues, and I recognize there are folks
on the other side who think my policies are misguided. That’s
putting it mildly. That’s okay. That’s democracy. That’s how it
works. We can debate those differences, vigorously, passionately,
in good faith, through the normal democratic process. And some
times, we’ll be just two far apart to forget an agreement. But
that should not hold back our efforts in areas where we do agree.
We shouldn’t fail to act on areas that we do agree or could agree
just because we don’t think it’s good politics. Just because the
extremes in our party don’t like the word “compromise.” I will
look for willing partners wherever I can to get important work
done. And there’s no good reason why we can’t govern responsibly,
despite our differences, without lurching from manufactured
crisis to manufactured crisis,” Obama said.

Copyright: RT