Eying volatile markets, Obama urges Congress to pass budget

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday urged the Congress to avoid contributing to global economic uncertainty and quickly pass a budget before a deadline at the end of September to prevent a government shutdown.

Obama called the U.S. economy "an anchor of global strength and stability" but said a down-to-the-wire budget drama would hurt momentum and add to strains in the global economy.

"It's been a volatile few weeks around the world. There's been a lot of reports in the news, and stock markets swinging, and worries about China and about Europe," Obama said in a speech.

Lawmakers have been away from Washington for a summer break for about six weeks. When they return on Sept. 8, they will have less than a month to resolve fiscal issues that have become entangled in the campaign for the next presidential election in 2016.

Obama said the U.S. budget should end automatic cuts to military and domestic spending known as "sequestration" and instead invest in the military, infrastructure, schools and research.

He said Congress should avoid attaching to the bill "unrelated partisan issues," a reference to a tactic to use the must-pass budget bill to tag on issues such as ending funding for Planned Parenthood or killing Obama's healthcare law.

"My message to Congress is pass a budget, prevent a shutdown, don't wait till the last minute, don't worry our businesses or our workers by contributing unnecessarily to global uncertainty," Obama said.

"Eventually we're going to do it anyway, so let's just do it without too much drama," he said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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