美国总统每周电台演讲：华盛顿白宫奥巴马讲话
WEEKLY ADDRESS: Congre Must Act Now toPa a Budget and
Raise the Debt Ceiling
WASHINGTON, DC— In his weekly addre, President Obama said that the economy is makingprogre five years after the worst receion since the Great Depreion, but to avoid anothercrisis, Congre must meet two deadlines in the coming weeks: pa a budget by the end of themonth to keep the government open, and raise the debt ceiling so America can pay its bills.Congre should vote to do these now, so that we can keep creating new jobs and expandingopportunity for the middle cla.
Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly AddreThe White HouseSeptember 21, 2013
Weekly Addre
Hi, everybody. It was five years ago this week that a financial crisis on Wall Street spread to MainStreet, and very nearly turned a receion into a depreion.In a matter of months, millions of Americans were robbed of their jobs, their homes, their savings –after a decade in which they’d already been working harder and harder to just get by.It was a crisis from which we’re still trying to recover. But thanks to the grit and determination ofthe American people, we are steadily recovering.Over the past three and a half years, our businees have created seven and a half million newjobs.Our housing market is healing.We’ve become le dependent on foreign oil. Health carecosts are growing at the slowest rate in 50 years. And in just over a week, millions of Americanswithout health care will be able to get covered for le than $100 a month.So our economy is gaining traction.And we’re finally tackling threats to middle-cla prosperity thatWashington neglected for far too long. But as any middle-cla family listening right now knows,we’ve got a long way to go to get to where we need to be. And after five years spent digging outof crisis, the last thing we need is for Washington to manufacture another.But that’s what will happen in the next few weeks if Congre doesn’t meet two deadlines.First: the most basic Constitutional duty Congre has is paing a budget. But if it doesn’t paone before September 30th – a week from Monday – the government will shut down. And so willmany services the American people expect. Military personnel, including those deployed overseas,won’t get their paychecks on time. Federal loans for rural communities, small busine owners, andnew home buyers will be frozen. Critical research into life-saving discoveries and renewable energywill be immediately halted.All of this will be prevented if Congre just paes a budget.Second: Congre must authorize the Treasury to pay America’s bills. This is done with a simple,usually routine vote to raise what’s called the debt ceiling. Since the 1950s, Congre has alwayspaed it, and every President has signed it – Democrats and Republicans, including PresidentReagan. And if this Congre doesn’t do it within the next few weeks, the United States will defaulton its obligations and put our entire economy at risk.This is important: raising the debt ceiling is not the same as approving more spending. It lets uspay for what Congre already spent. It doesn’t cost a dime, or add a penny to our deficit. Infact, right now, our deficits are already falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. Andby the end of this year, we’ll have cut our deficits by more than half since I took office.But reducing our deficits and debt isn’t even what the current standoff in Congre is about.Now, Democrats and some reasonable Republicans are willing to raise the debt ceiling and pa asensible budget – one that cuts spending on what we don’t need so we can invest in what we do.And I want to work with those Democrats and Republicans on a better bargain for the middle cla.But there’s also a faction on the far right of the Republican party who’ve convinced their leadershipto threaten a government shutdown if they can’t shut off the Affordable Care Act. Some areactually willing to plunge America into default if they can’t defund the Affordable Care Act.Think about that. They’d actually plunge this country back into receion – all to deny the basicsecurity of health care to millions of Americans.Well, that’s not happening. And they know it’s not happening.The United States of America is not a deadbeat nation. We are a compaionate nation. We arethe world’s bedrock investment. And doing anything to threaten that is the height ofirresponsibility. That’s why I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States. Iwill not allow anyone to harm this country’s reputation, or threaten to inflict economic pain onmillions of our own people, just to make an ideological point.So, we are running out of time to fix this. But we could fix it tomorrow. Both houses of Congrecan take a simple vote to pay our bills on time, then work together to pa a budget on time.Then we can declare an end to governing by crisis and govern responsibly, by putting our focusback where it should always be – on creating new jobs, growing our economy, and expandingopportunity not just for ourselves, but for future generations.Thank you.
