The White House(WASHINGTON) — As President Obama unveiled his 2016 budget on Monday, he urged Republicans to tackle some unfinished business: funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Speaking to employees at DHS headquarters, the president once again urged Republicans, who are still furious with his executive actions on immigration reform, not to play politics with funding for the key agency.
“If they don’t agree with me, that’s fine. That’s how our democracy works. You may have noticed they usually don’t agree with me,” Obama quipped. “But don’t jeopardize our national security over this disagreement.”
With DHS funding set to expire at the end of the month, the president warned lawmakers not to use those purse strings to make a political point.
“The men and women of America’s homeland security apparatus do important work to protect us, and Republicans and Democrats in Congress should not be playing politics with that. We need to fund the department, pure and simple,” he said.
Obama is proposing a $4 trillion budget that would lift the automatic sequestration cuts, which he called “mindless austerity,” and increase domestic and defense spending.
“My budget will end sequestration and fully reverse the cuts to domestic priorities in 2016. And it will match the investments that were made domestically dollar for dollar with increases in our defense funding,” he said.
But Obama also warned that the two must go hand-in-hand.
“I will not accept a budget that severs the vital link between our national security and our economic security,” he said, sending a warning to lawmakers who support increasing just defense spending, but not increased domestic investments in infrastructure, education and his other initiatives aimed at boosting the middle class.
The budget, which is seen as more of an opening bid, now heads for a lengthy negotiation process.
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