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Obama Praises Debt Limit Deal

<p>President Barack Obama on Wednesday applauded Congress for raising the nation's debt limit. </p>
Image: Barack Obama
President Barack Obama talks about National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance, Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, at the Justice Department in Washington.Seeking to calm a furor over U.S. surveillance, the president called for ending the government's control of phone data from hundreds of millions of Americans and immediately ordered intelligence agencies to get a secretive court's permission before accessing the records. Carolyn Kaster / AP

President Barack Obama on Wednesday applauded Congress for raising the nation's debt limit. In a statement, Obama said the country's borrowing authority "is too important to use as leverage" and hopes the deal "puts an end to politics by brinkmanship."

The full statement from the White House:

I'm pleased that Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to pay for what they've already spent, and remove the threat of default from our economy once and for all. The full faith and credit of the United States is too important to use as leverage or a tool for extortion. Hopefully, this puts an end to politics by brinksmanship and allows us to move forward to do more to create good jobs and strengthen the economy. Instead of wasting time creating new crises, Congress should be focused on creating new jobs and opportunities. That's what the American people deserve from their representatives in Washington, and that's what they should get.