WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Saturday that new budget rules that say spending cuts must accompany spending increases will force Congress to “pay for what it spends, just like everybody else.”
Obama signed a bill Friday reinstating budget rules known as “paygo” — short for “pay as you go.” In place during the 1990s, the rules helped create balanced budgets and surpluses. Obama blames eliminating them for creating much of the $1.3 trillion deficit he faced upon taking office in January 2009 and for a total debt of $8 trillion projected over the next decade.
The president has been trying to show he is taking steps to tighten Washington’s purse strings. But the bill also lifted the cap on the amount of money the U.S. can borrow by $1.9 trillion — to a total of $14.3 trillion.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said the “politics of the moment” often overwhelms the desire Democrats and Republicans have to produce balanced budgets. The Associated Press
