Obama: GOP budget critics holding US 'hostage'
President Barack Obama furiously responded Friday to congressional budget battles that could threaten a partial government shutdown, accusing Republicans voting against his health care law of focusing on politics and "holding the whole country hostage."
Locked in a stalemate with lawmakers over spending and borrowing with less than two weeks until the start of the new budget year, the president returned to a fiery campaign mode to take his critics to task. He said Republicans must stop focusing on defunding his health care law, pass a budget and raise the nation's borrowing limit to head off a first-ever default on the nation's debt.
"We're not some banana republic. This isn't some deadbeat nation," Obama said before workers on a sprawling auto plant floor in Missouri. "We don't run out on our tab. We're the world's bedrock investment. The entire world looks to us to make sure the world economy is stable. We can't just not pay our bills. And even threating something like that is the height of irresponsibility."
Congress faces two financial deadlines in the coming weeks. Funding for the government is set to run out at the end of September, and the government will reach the limits of its borrowing authority a few weeks later.
The Republican-led House passed a bill Friday to keep the government running while gutting funding for Obama's health care law.
The health care provision is sure to die in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Obama said he would veto it if it didn't, setting up a showdown that could lead to a partial government shutdown.
"Our message to the United State Senate is real simple," House Speaker John Boehner declared after the vote. "The American people don't want the government shut down, and they don't want Obamacare."
Obama returned the combative tone soon after, accusing Republicans of threatening to "blow the whole thing up" because they couldn't get their way on health care. He ridiculed them for the more than 40 votes they've taken to repeal his health care proposal as a waste of time and energy.
"Now they've gone beyond just holding Congress hostage. They're holding the whole country hostage," with the key deadlines looming, Obama said.
Obama was speaking at a Ford Motor Co. stamping plant near Kansas City, and he told the workers that the shutdown will hurt Americans like them. He laid out a menacing list of consequences if Congress fails to act: Delayed paychecks for military workers, hundreds of thousands of Americans prevented from going to work, small businesses whose loans won't go through.
"Somebody wanting to buy an F-150 will have to pay much higher interest rates eventually, which means you will sell less cars," he said. "That's just one example of how profoundly destructive this could be. This is not some abstract thing."
He continued with the automotive metaphor to explain the impact of the failure to raise the debt limit, comparing it to a driver who gets a new F-150 on a payment plan.
"I can't just say, you know, I'm not going to make my car payment this month. That's what Congress is threatening to do, just saying, 'I'm not going to pay the bills.' There are consequences to that," Obama said.
据美国媒体报道，眼看着僵持不下的国会预算之争可能导致政府“关门”，美国总统奥巴马掩饰不住内心的怒火，他9月20日公开指责共和党国会议员拒绝为其医改法案拨款是在进行政治博弈、“把整个国家挟持为人质”。
由于美国民主、共和两党尚未解决2014财年（10月1日开始）的政府预算案，美国会众议院20日投票通过了联邦政府临时拨款议案，以使联邦政府可运营至12月中旬，但是该议案中包括禁止给实施奥巴马医改拨款的内容。根据立法程序，议案还需得到参议院批准后方可送交奥巴马总统签署生效。由于参议院由民主党控制，该议案几乎很难被通过，僵局意味着美国政府依然面临“关门”的风险。
当天，奥巴马在密苏里州堪萨斯市近郊的福特汽车厂发表演讲，要求共和党国会议员必须停止紧咬拒绝为医改法案拨款一事不放，通过预算案、调高举债上限，避免出现美国史上首次拖欠债务。“这里是美利坚共和国。我们不是什么香蕉共和国、不是个赖债的国家，我们不会不付帐。我们是世界经济的基石，全世界都在盯着我们的一举一动，以确保世界经济稳定。我们不能赖账，就连以此作为威胁都是不负责任之尤。”
随后，奥巴马谴责称，共和党国会议员无法在医保事宜上得偿所愿，所以他们威胁“要把整件事闹大”。奥巴马还出言讥讽称众议院以230票赞成、189票反对的表决结果通过临时拨款议案，“这多出来的40多张赞成票真是浪费时间、浪费精力”。
在演讲现场，奥巴马告诉福特汽车厂的工人们，政府“关门”将会伤害包括他们在内的美国老百姓的利益。他列举了倘若国会没有采取行动将带来的一系列灾难性后果：军方人员的薪水被拖欠，数十万美国人没法上班、小企业所需的贷款无人审批。
“有人想买一款F-150汽车，他最终需要支付更高的银行利息，这意味着你们售出的汽车数量将会减少。”奥巴马解释称，“这只是一个简单的例子来说明（预算案不通过）将带来多么严重的破坏性后果，这并不只是一个抽象的概念。”
