Obama recently signed a bipartisan federal budget bill that lasts for two years, and will prevent a government shutdown as 2014 begins.
However, there is clear indication that the Republican party might not be as cooperative as assumed, with Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, speaking to reporters, saying, “I doubt if the House, or for that matter the Senate, is willing to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase. We’ll have to see what the House insists on adding to it as a condition for passing it.”
This budget bill was drafted by a bipartisan budget committee that was set up after the 16-day government shutdown and after which, was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
But that’s not all – Congress will have to pass a $1.012 trillion fiscal spending bill for the year ahead, and which might definitely put both parties against each other, rather than unite them especially in regard to the government’s borrowing limits.
While this latest bill intends to reduce America’s $642 billion budget deficit by $23 billion, it will also roll back another $63 billion in both military and domestic spending cuts.
The Democrats have gone along with these measure even though they voiced their disapproval about almost 1.3 million Americans not getting long-term unemployment benefits.
The President signed this bill while holidaying in Hawaii, along with six other bills and one in particular, that comes down hard on committing sexual assault in the military.