Economy
President Barack Obama scrapped trips to two key Asian summits Thursday, blaming the partial government shutdown for the cancellation of a tour designed to advance a key prong of his foreign policy.
After days of speculation that the trip was in jeopardy because of the shutdown crisis, a White House statement late Thursday confirmed Obama would miss the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bali and the East Asia summit in Brunei next week.
"Due to the government shutdown, President Obama's travel to Indonesia and Brunei has been canceled," the statement said.
"The President made this decision based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel in the face of a shutdown and his determination to continue pressing his case that Republicans should immediately allow a vote to reopen the government."
The announcement came on the third day of the shutdown, which was brought on by House Republicans' refusal to pass a budget bill free of amendments that would have delayed the Affordable Care Act.
The president had already canceled plans to visit Malaysia and the Philippines to continue pushing for a budget bill that would reopen the government but delayed making a decision on the summit meetings, both of which were seen as opportunities to push important foreign-policy initiatives in the region.
Secretary of State John Kerry would lead the U.S. delegations to both countries in place of Obama, the statement said, before pinning blame on Republicans for causing a "completely avoidable shutdown."
"The cancellation of this trip is another consequence of the House Republicans forcing a shutdown of the government," the statement said. "This completely avoidable shutdown is setting back our ability to create jobs through promotion of U.S. exports and advance U.S. leadership and interests in the largest emerging region in the world."
The budget impasse, which shuttered swaths of government departments and sent hundreds of thousands of federal workers home, left Obama torn between his domestic political priorities and important foreign-policy goals.
Political analysts had questioned whether he would risk traveling abroad and present an opening to domestic foes while on the other side of the globe.
Republicans would almost certainly have accused the president of placing more importance on striding the world stage and neglecting his duties at home.
However, analysts warned a no-show by Obama could hurt U.S. interests in Asia, allowing competitors in the region like China to make the case that the United States is an unreliable partner.
And early reaction in the region was not positive.
Simon Tay, chairman of the non-governmental organization Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said Obama's decision "could signal the start of the unraveling of the U.S. pivot to Asia."
"If they can furlough jobs, cease government services and risk a downgrade in the country's credit rating, American politicians may start finding it tough to be consistent in their political reassurances about U.S. commitment toward faraway Asia," Tay wrote in a statement.
"I think there's a lot at stake here with this trip," said Ernie Bower, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, before the cancellation was made official. "The geopolitical ramifications of the president not making a trip if he decides indeed that he has to cancel ... would leave a big geopolitical mark."
Bower added that U.S. allies would question the extent of Obama's commitment to Asia amid concerns that Washington lacked the political focus and capital to follow through on Asia.
By nixing the visit, Obama will be missing a chance to rub shoulders with leaders like China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin, key players in ongoing geopolitical crises from Syria to North Korea.
Earlier Thursday, officials warned that Congress’ budget dispute could grow to encompass legislation needed by mid-October to raise the debt limit. If Congress fails to raise the borrowing cap, the U.S. could default on its obligations for the first time and send shockwaves across the world.
The Treasury Department warned that failure to raise that debt ceiling could spark a new recession even worse than the one Americans are still recovering from. But Thursday, House Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, privately told lawmakers that he would not allow the nation to default, the New York Times reported.
Speaking at a press conference Friday, Boehner assured fellow Republicans that he will work with them on any measure to increase the debt limit.
Obama laid the blame Thursday at the feet of the Republican leader of the House. He cast Boehner as a captive of a small band of conservative activists who want to extract concessions in exchange for passing the short term spending bill that would restart the government.
"The only thing preventing people from going back to work and basic research starting back up and farmers and small business owners getting their loans, the only thing that is preventing all that from happening right now, today, in the next five minutes is that Speaker John Boehner won't even let the bill get a yes or no vote because he doesn't want to anger the extremists in his party," Obama said.
Boehner swiftly shot back, criticizing Obama and his "my-way-or-the-highway approach." Boehner said that if the president would negotiate to fix flaws in the Affordable Care Act, the shutdown could end.
"The president's insistence on steamrolling ahead with this flawed program is irresponsible," he said.
The exchange came a day after a White House meeting between Obama and congressional leaders yielded no progress.
The shutdown is keeping hundreds of thousands of federal workers home and affecting Americans in ways large and small. Scores of government programs, from feeding pregnant women to staffing call centers at the federal tax agency, were disrupted.
The shutdown itself is estimated to trim only about 0.2 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product each week. But that could grow worse if the impasse begins to erode consumer and business confidence.
The U.S. stock market sank to its lowest level in a month Thursday, while indexes in Germany and France also fell.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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