WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama chided Republicans on Saturday for approving a plan to ease air-traffic delays caused by federal spending cuts while leaving budget cuts that affect children and the elderly untouched.
The Senate and the House of Representatives backed a plan this week to give the Department of Transportation flexibility to cover immediate salaries of air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration who had been furloughed as part of budget cuts known as "sequester."
The furloughs led to take-off and landing delays at airports nationwide, which was started Sunday
"This week, sequester hurt travelers, who were stuck for hours in airports and on planes, and rightly frustrated by it.
And, maybe because they fly home each weekend, the members of Congress who insisted these cuts take hold finally realized that they actually apply to them too," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
"Hence Congress passed a temporary fix, A Band-Aid. But these cuts are scheduled to keep falling across other parts of the government that provide vital services for the American people," he said.
Despite the chiding, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Friday that Obama would sign the bill.
In his address, broadcast on Saturday morning, Obama noted that the cuts were affecting social programs and should be replaced with less arbitrary spending reductions.
"There is only one way to truly fix the sequester: by replacing it before it causes further damage," Obama said, adding he hoped members of Congress would feel the same sense of urgency they felt with the FAA cuts on other programs.
"They may not feel the pain felt by kids kicked off Head Start, or the 750,000 Americans projected to lose their jobs because of these cuts, or the long-term unemployed who will be further hurt by them. But that pain is real," he said.
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