2nd LD Writethru: Obama pressures Congress, threatening not to sign another "short-sighted" spending bill

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday pressured Republican-controlled Congress to pass the government funding bill for the current fiscal year by warning not to sign another stopgap funding bill like Congress sent earlier this week.

Blasting Republicans who now control the Congress for diminishing U.S. leadership, Obama warned of another potential "manufactured crisis" just two weeks before Christmas and said he would not sign another "shortsighted spending bill".

"I want to be very clear. I will not sign another short-sighted spending bill like the one Congress sent me this week," said Obama.

"So the bottom line is, Congress has to do its job. It can't flirt with another shutdown."

After months-long partisan fight over the government funding bill for fiscal year 2016 failed to yield results, a deeply divided Congress on Wednesday passed a short-term funding bill just hours before a possible government shutdown.

The stopgap funding bill, which will expire by Dec. 11, now grants Congress and the Obama administration 10 weeks to settle difference on spending priorities for fiscal year 2016, which would end on Sept. 30, 2016.

While Obama's emphasis was on fiscal year 2016, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this week Republican leadership in Congress wanted a two-year budget deal for both 2016 and 2017 fiscal years.

As the nation had already entered the 2016 presidential election cycle, Republican leaders in recent weeks showed increasing eagerness to strike a two-year budget deal to shun another standoff or even a government shutdown over budget next year in the middle of an election.

However, the prospect for a successful deal remains dim, with Congressional Democrats and the White House demanding that budget caps be lifted overall while Republicans insisting on an increase only for the defense programs.

Meanwhile, though U.S. lawmakers have 10 weeks to nail down a spending bill, an impatient Obama on Friday said he wanted to see the debt ceiling raised in five weeks.

"So even though the continuing resolution to keep the government open lasts for ten weeks, we have to get the debt ceiling raised in five," said Obama. "You've (Congress) got a shorter timetable to get that done." Enditem