Having a divided government is no reason to stop efforts to grow the economy, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said in Saturday's GOP address, in which he touted Republican ideals while calling for bipartisan cooperation on the national level.
"Good executives, like all good leaders, must expect opposition when making decisions or when making or enforcing the law, but executives must engage those that disagree with them, the Republican leader said.
Sandoval's words came as the federal government appears headed for a stalemate concerning Obamacare and the national budget.
On Friday, President Barack Obama called House Speaker John Boehner https://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-boehner-debt-defunding/2013/09/20/id/526969 and reiterated that he would not negotiate with Congress on raising the debt limit, a Boehner representative said.
The call came a day after Boehner attacked the president in an Internet video https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/boehner-obama-putin-congress/2013/09/19/id/526665 for his refusal to strike a deal with Congress on the debt ceiling.
Sandoval said Saturday that the president and Congress must work better together if they expect to strike a deal before Sept. 30 and avoid a government shutdown.
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"They must listen to all ideas, persuade when possible, and respectfully and firmly disagree when necessary," said Sandoval.
Obama said Saturday that "reducing our deficits and debt isn't even what the current standoff in Congress is about," and that Democrats and some "reasonable" Republicans are willing to raise the nation's debt ceiling and pass a "sensible budget that cuts spending on what we don't need so we can invest in what we do."
Further, the president insisted that he wants to work with "those Democrats and Republicans on a better bargain for the middle class."
However, he said that far-right Republicans have convinced GOP leaders to threaten government shutdown if Obamacare isn't defeated, indicating he'll continue to fight their efforts.
"They’d actually plunge this country back into recession – all to deny the basic security of health care to millions of Americans," said Obama. "That’s not happening. And they know it’s not happening...I will not allow anyone to harm this country's reputation, or threaten to inflict economic pain on millions of our own people, just to make an ideological point."
Meanwhile, Sandoval pointed out that Republican ideals, when combined with cooperation, may help the nation just as it did his own state.
"When I first came to office, our country was in the depths of the great recession, and, no state had been hit harder than Nevada," the governor said. At that time, the state's unemployment rate was at about 15 percent and it led the nation in foreclosures and bankruptcies.
"Unlike Washington, we had to balance our state budget as Nevada could not borrow its way out of problems," said Sandoval.
Nevada was successful, he said, because "we sit down, put partisanship aside, talk through our disagreements, and find common ground."
As a result, Nevada has now "experienced 31 straight months of economic growth, we have had the second strongest decline in unemployment in the country, and we continue to add much needed jobs."
States respond in a positive way, said Sandoval, and "It’s no accident that the fastest growing states with the best economies are all led by Republican governors" whose ideas "have and continue to work."
Republicans' core convictions, he said, "provide the surest path to an America where economic opportunity still abounds, hard work still rewards, and dreams are still realized."