Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WRKF/WWNO Newsroom.

Obama Calls For Budget, Immigration Reform By Year's End

At the White House on Thursday, President Obama said "the American people are completely fed up with Washington."
Charles Dharapak
/
AP
At the White House on Thursday, President Obama said "the American people are completely fed up with Washington."

President Obama slammed the partisan standoff "spectacle" that he said had damaged the economy and America's international credibility, and called on Congress to pass a comprehensive budget, immigration reform and a farm bill by year's end.

He praised "Democrats and responsible Republicans who came together" to pass a last-minute deal to reverse a partial government shutdown and narrowly avert the expiration of the federal borrowing authority.

"Let's be clear, there are no winners here," he said Thursday. "These last few weeks have inflicted completely unnecessary damage to our economy."

"The American people are completely fed up with Washington," he added.

The president's remarks follow a 16-day hiatus in many government operations that he said had cost billions of dollars.

"There was no economic rationale for this," the president said of the shutdown.

"Today I want our people, our businesses and the rest of the world to know that our faith and credit remains unquestioned," he said.

Obama called for a renewed, bipartisan effort to pass a comprehensive budget, fix the "broken" immigration system and get a farm bill passed.

"This can and should get done by the end of this year," he said.

Finally, he said he had a message for federal workers, who were either furloughed or kept working without pay: "Thank you. Thanks for your service. Welcome back. What you do is important. It matters."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Tags
Scott Neuman is a reporter and editor, working mainly on breaking news for NPR's digital and radio platforms.