October 17, 2013.

Obama Lauds Budget Accord

"But there's not many that'd say so nowadays." He coughed. "Now, if it so happened that you wanted to buy it, that'd cost you four dollars. I can remember when a thing like that would have fetched eight pounds, and eight pounds was----well, I can't work it out, but it was a lot of money. But who cares about genuine antiques nowadays even the few that's left?"

President Barack Obama praised Democrats and some Republicans for reaching an 11th hour deal that ended a tense budget stalemate but blasted lawmakers he blamed for repeated crises in Washington that have hurt American workers.

Winston immediately paid over the four dollars and slid the coveted thing into his pocket. What appealed to him about it was not so much its beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite different from the present one. The soft, rainwatery glass was not like any glass that he had ever seen. The thing was doubly attractive because of its apparent uselessness, though he could guess that it must once have been intended as a paperweight. It was very heavy in his pocket, but fortunately it did not make much of a bulge. It was a queer thing, even a compromising thing, for a Party member to have in his possession. Anything old, and for that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect. The old man had grown noticeably more cheerful after receiving the four dollars. Winston realized that he would have accepted three or even two.

"Let's be clear. There are no winners here," Mr. Obama said in remarks from the White House. "These last few weeks have inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy."

"There's another room upstairs that you might care to take a look at," he said. "There's not much in it. Just a few pieces. We'll do with a light if we're going upstairs."

Just hours after Congress approved a budget deal, the president called for a new approach to governing in Washington, asking elected officials to stop listening to lobbyists, bloggers and professional activists who he said profit from conflict. He urged a cooperative approach to make government work, adding that he would look for willing partners wherever he could find them.