Saturday, December 19, 2015
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama closed his next-to-last year in office with rare praise for congressional Republican leaders who helped orchestrate a bipartisan budget deal Friday, then vowed to work hard to beat the GOP and get a fellow Democrat elected to succeed him in the White House.
“I do want to thank Congress for ending the year on a high note,” Obama said in his annual year-end news conference. He singled out former House Speaker John Boehner for kick-starting the budget process shortly before leaving Congress and gave current Speaker Paul Ryan “kudos” for seeing the effort through.
The budget package, which staved off a government shutdown and extended tax cuts for families and businesses, was finalized shortly before Obama addressed reporters in the White House briefing room Friday afternoon. The president quickly signed the measure into law.
The fiscal agreement capped a year of milestones for the president – including a historic Iranian nuclear accord, a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade pact and a global climate agreement – that have been overshadowed in recent weeks by deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., heightening Americans’ fears of terrorism.
Obama was stopping in San Bernardino late Friday to meet with families of the 14 victims on his way to Hawaii for his annual two-week Christmas vacation in his home state. The California attack by a married couple has raised concerns about the reach of the Islamic State and other terror groups.
Much of the president’s focus was on outlining plans for his final year in office. The race to succeed him is well underway and will consume even more of the public’s attention once primary voting begins in February.
Though Obama was sidelined by his party in the 2014 midterm elections, he made clear he plans to play a robust role in the 2016 campaign. He said he expected Democrats to nominate a strong candidate, though he did not publicly side with front-runner Hillary Clinton or top challenger Bernie Sanders.
“I think I will have a Democratic successor,” Obama said. “And I will campaign very hard to make that happen.”
Bowing to the realities of an election year, the president outlined a limited legislative agenda for next year. He called on lawmakers to find areas of common ground on issues including criminal justice reform and final passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, both of which have some Republican support.