Late Wednesday night President Barack Obama signed a bill that would reopen the federal government after a 16 day shutdown and raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit narrowly avoiding the possibility of default, according to the Washington Post.
A deal to end the shutdown was crafted by Senate leaders Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., with only hours left to go before the midnight deadline. Under the plan the government will be funded through Jan. 15 and the debt limit will last until Feb. 7, according to CBS News.
A bitterly divided House was unable to work with President Obama to make a deal that didn't defund the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform law that was at the center of the government showdown, and eventually the Senate stepped in to craft a compromise.
After weeks of strong partisanship that saw both parties being derided and blamed for the shutdown by the public Reid called for Congress to try to work together in the future, according to CBS News.
"This is not a time for pointing fingers and blame. This is a time for reconciliation," Reid said. "I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of this great Capitol to pass this remarkable agreement that will protect the long term health of our economy and avert a default on our nation's debt, and allow us to set a foundation for economic expansion."
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., worked on the bill that put an end to the shutdown and echoed Reid's belief that the bipartisan effort can be something that Congress should build on going forward.
"It is my hope both parties will continue working together on a big deal with spending cuts and reforms to entitlements and the tax code so that we can give our markets and the American people the stability they need and deserve," Kirk said in a statement.
After signing the bill President Obama addressed the uncertainty that the same process may repeat itself once the government runs out of funding early next year by simply telling a reporter "no" when asked by a reporter, according to the Chicago Tribune.
"We can begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the American people," President Obama said. "Hopefully next time it won't be in the 11th hour. We've got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis."
The root cause of the shutdown was an effort to defund the Affordable Care Act from House Republicans. In the weeks leading up to the deadline House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Republicans refused to pass a continuing resolution that didn't include a provision to defund the health care law; the Senate and President Obama had made it clear that they would not pass a bill that attacked the law. In the end the compromise bill that became law barely touched President Obama's signature piece of legislation, according the Washington Post.
"We've been locked in a fight over here, trying to bring government down to size, trying to do our best to stop Obamacare," Boehner said. "We fought the good fight. We just didn't win."
