U.S. military personnel will face a disruption in pay if Congress doesn’t quickly pass a budget and raise the debt ceiling, President Barack Obama warned in his weekly address Saturday.
“The government will shut down. So will many services the American people will expect,” Obama said, speaking of the consequences he says the country will suffer if Congress can’t come to an agreement on a continuing resolution bill. “Military personnel, including those deployed overseas, won’t get their paychecks on time.”
On Friday, the House stripped funding for the president’s landmark healthcare law from a continuing resolution bill to fund the government. If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reinserts the funding when the bill reaches the Senate, which he most likely will, some Republicans have threatened filibuster it.
Obama said these Republicans are part of a “faction on the right” who are acting at the “height of irresponsibility.”
“Some are actually willing to plunge America into default if they can’t defund the Affordable Care Act,” Obama said. “They would actually plunge this country back into recession all to deny the basic security of healthcare to millions of Americans.”
“That’s not happening and they know it’s not happening,” the president continued. “The United States is not a deadbeat nation.”
In his address, Obama said raising the debt ceiling will not increase spending by a single cent.
“Raising the debt ceiling is not the same as approving more spending,” he said. “It lets us pay for what Congress already spent.”
Obama added his administration has reduced deficits.
“[R]ight now, our deficits are already falling at the fastest rate since World War II,” the president said. “And by the end of this year, we will have cut our deficits by more than half since I took office.”