Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-10) released the following statement on the budget deal that just passed Congress:

Despite the reckless efforts by the House Republicans to hold the country and our economy hostage in order to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Senate and the House have now agreed on a compromise to reopen the government and to avert the catastrophe of a Federal government default.

We have defeated the Republican tactic of government by blackmail. Despite the Republican loss of last year’s elections, the House Republicans tried to accomplish their policy goals by shutting down the government and threatening economic catastrophe. This type of blackmail is incompatible with our democratic form of government. It had to be defeated – and it was.

Unfortunately, Congress was unable to extend the debt ceiling beyond February 7th. Raising the debt ceiling for years, instead of months, would have led to greater confidence in our economic stability by the markets. It seems that the only reason not to extend the debt ceiling further is so that some Republicans can once again threaten to hold our nation hostage during the next round of negotiations. Hopefully, Republicans have learned their lesson and will not try to blackmail the country again.

With the end of the current round of Republican blackmail, now is the time to create a long-term budget solution that raises the sequestration budget levels. The sequestration levels are suffocating much-needed human services, dragging down the economy, and costing us more than a million jobs.

My hope is that the upcoming budget negotiations will give us an opportunity to restore economic policies that will promote job creation.

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