Leader of Oppression Land Obama pitches Congress short-term budget deal

US President Barack Obama has asked Congress to pass a short-term package designed to postpone the automatic spending cuts and tax hikes scheduled for March 1.
Obama pitched the proposal on Tuesday, urging Congress to consider a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reforms in order to delay the larger cuts automatically scheduled to take place next month.

“So if Congress can’t act immediately on a bigger package…then I believe that they should at least pass a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reforms that would delay the economically damaging effects of the [cuts] for a few more months until Congress finds a way to replace these cuts with a smarter solution,” Obama said.

The president added that looming cuts do not “have to happen” and must be avoided in order to prevent further cuts into military and domestic programs.

“At the very least, we should give them the chance to come up with this budget, instead of making indiscriminate cuts now that will cost us jobs and significantly slow down our recovery,” Obama said.

He went on to blame lawmakers for the “self-inflicted wounds” due to their failure to reform government spending and address problems in the income tax laws.

Conservative Republicans in Congress are poised to let automatic cuts follow through — a move experts say would create another recession.

This comes as Obama signed into law on Monday a bill aimed at postponing the USD 16.4 trillion limit on federal borrowing until May 18 and allowing the government to have access to approximately USD 450 billion to avert a default.

As lawmakers avoided the fiscal cliff about a month ago, deep spending cuts are expected to hit the Pentagon and federal agencies next month.