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18.10.2013 United States

US Government Employees Head Back To Work

By Daily Guide
President Barack ObamaPresident Barack Obama
18.10.2013 LISTEN

The cross-party deal came hours before the US government risked running out of money to pay its bills.

“There are no winners,” Mr Obama said, adding the US would “bounce back”.

The deal followed 16 days of partial government shutdown, which began when Congress failed to agree on a budget.

Congress voted through the deal less than a day before a deadline to raise the $16.7tn (£10.5tn) debt limit.

The measure approved in Washington funds the government to 15 January, and extends the US treasury department's borrowing authority until 7 February.

The deal does not resolve the budgetary issues that fiercely divide Republicans and Democrats. Instead, it establishes a cross-party committee of legislators tasked with crafting a long-term budget deal over the coming months.

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Workers said were “pleased and excited” to get back to the office

A faction of Republicans in the hardline Tea Party movement had pushed for the confrontation as a way to gut Mr Obama's healthcare reform.

However, Mr Obama and the Democrats refused to negotiate, and the law commonly known as Obamacare escaped relatively unscathed.

On Thursday, Mr Obama thanked congressional leaders for their help ending the government shutdown and raising the debt limit, but said both had “inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy”.

“Nothing has done more to undermine our economy the last three years than the kind of tactics that create these kinds of manufactured crises,” he said.

Mr Obama said politicians had to stop listening to “talking heads” and activists “who profit from conflict” and instead focus on growing the economy and creating a responsible budget.

“The American people are completely fed up with Washington,” he said. “How business is done in this town has to change.”

Mr Obama called the political crises “a spectacle” which had hurt America's credibility in the world.

And to the conservative Republicans who pushed the showdown as a way to extract policy concessions, he said, “Go out there and win an election.”

BBC

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