A weary President Barack Obama held a solemn but victorious press conference after the Senate voted 81-18 to pass a bi-partisan deal that would end the GOP government shutdown and halt the country from careening into default.
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us, including the need to earn back the trust of the American people,” President Obama said at the White House.
President Obama reiterated his commitment to crossing the aisle and listening to Republican ideas. Seeking to calm Tea Party fears of an emboldened Black president, Obama made it clear that he doesn’t believe that Democrats “hold the monopoly on ideas.”
The measure now goes to the House, where Speaker John Boehner said Republicans won’t block the compromise.
“We fought the good fight. We just didn’t win,” conceded Boehner as lawmakers prepared to vote on a bill that included none of their Obamacare demands.
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) predicted this would be the outcome when he blamed the GOP for going on a “fool’s errand” last week.
Speaking with Fox anchor Martha MacCallum, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee criticized President Obama for not negotiating with House Republicans on reinstating death benefits to military families, instead accepting an offer from The Fisher House Foundation “to provide the families of the fallen with the benefits they so richly deserve,” said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement.
Though the Pentagon will reimburse the foundation after the shutdown ends, McCain admitted that it would have never gotten to this point if the GOP hadn’t been holding the nation hostage and demanding the defunding of Obamacare as ransom:
“Let’s have a little straight talk, Martha,” McCain said. “[The administration] wouldn’t have had the opportunity to handle it that way if we had not shut down the government on a fool’s errand that we were not going to accomplish. The whole premise of shutting down the government was the repeal of Obamacare. I fought against Obamacare harder than any of the people who wanted to shut down the government.”
President Obama said that he is ready and waiting on the House to vote.
“I will sign it immediately,” he said.
Read the full transcript of President Obama’s statement on the next page:
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