Obama: 'Americans Of Different Beliefs Came Together'

Carrie Dann writes:Moments after Congressional leaders announced a deal to prevent an government shutdown and to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year, President Barack Obama praised negotiators for reaching consensus on a budget deal.

“Tomorrow, I am pleased to announce that the Washington monument, as well as the rest of the federal government, will be open for business,” Obama said in remarks from the White House.

“Today, Americans of different beliefs came together again,” Obama said.

The president said that negotiators have reached “a budget that invests in our future while making the largest annual spending cut in our history,” adding that he  compromised on cuts that he would “not have made in better circumstances."

On the Senate floor, Senate Majority Harry Reid praised fellow negotiator House Speaker John Boehner and called the spending cuts “historic.” 

“We must get our fiscal house in order,” the Senate leader said. “We've agreed to an historic level of cuts for this fiscal year.”

Reid noted that the eleventh-hour deal reflected the difficulty of the negotiations. 

“We didn’t do it at this late hour for the drama,” he said. “We did it because it’s been very hard.”  
                                    
Around 11:20 pm ET, the Senate approved by voice vote a six-day stopgap measure to fund the government, sending it to the House for approval. A long-term bill is expected to be approved in the middle of next week.

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