President Obama urged lawmakers Tuesday to approve a tentative two-year budget agreement, saying he’s “pretty happy” about the deal that raises spending and suspends the debt limit until 2017.
“I’m pretty happy about that, because it reflects our values,” Mr. Obama told a convention of police chiefs in Chicago. “It’s an actual bipartisan compromise, which hasn’t been happening much in Washington a lot lately.”
Mr. Obama also warned Congress not to get into an appropriations battle over funding for Planned Parenthood, although he didn’t mention the agency by name.
“I hope Congress gets right to work on spending bills to invest in America’s priorities and that they don’t get sidetracked by ideological provisions that have no place in America’s budget process,” he said.
The president said the deal, which blows through spending caps enacted in 2011, will help by “growing the economy and the middle class by investing in the things like education and job training that are needed.”
“And it keeps us safe by investing in our national security,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s paid for responsibly, in part with a measure to make sure that hedge funds and private equity firms pay what they owe in taxes, just like everybody else. It’s the right thing to do.”
By locking in two years of funding, Mr. Obama said the deal “will finally free us from this cycle of shutdown threats, last-minute patchwork fixes.”
“That’s good news for everybody,” the president said. “It’s a step forward, and I hope both parties come together to pass this agreement without delay, they’ve got a few days to do it.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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