Earlier, on CNBC, Obama said he is "prepared to negotiate [7]." As it turns out, he may have been confused about the meaning of the bolded word because less than four hours later, the White House issued a statement in which "The President made clear to the Leaders that he is not going to negotiate over the need for Congress to act to reopen the government."
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2013
Readout of the President’s Meeting with Congressional Leadership
Tonight, the President hosted a meeting with the members of the Congressional Leadership that lasted for over an hour. The President made clear to the Leaders that he is not going to negotiate over the need for Congress to act to reopen the government or to raise the debt limit to pay the bills Congress has already incurred. The President reinforced his view that the House should put the clean government funding bill that has been passed by the Senate up for a vote – a bill that would pass a majority of the House with bipartisan support. The House could act today to reopen the government and stop the harm this shutdown is causing to the economy and families across the country. The President remains hopeful that common sense will prevail, and that Congress will not only do its job to reopen the government, but also act to pay the bills it has racked up and spare the nation from a devastating default. The President is glad that the Leaders were able to engage in this useful discussion this evening.
And since we are discussing Obama's linguistic capacity, perhaps another word he may wnat to loo up is "prevent. As in the following [8]:
President Barack Obama said on Wednesday his selection of a nominee to head the Federal Reserve when Chairman Ben Bernanke's term ends in January will prevent asset bubbles from forming but will also try to lower a high jobless rate. "They're going to be making sure that they keep an eye on inflation, that they're not encouraging some of the bubbles that we've seen in our economy that have resulted in busts," Obama said in an interview on CNBC. "But they're also going to stay focused on the fact that our unemployment rate is still too high."
It's been a long day, but we are fairly confident not even the world's greatest thesaurus lists "actively promotes and carefully cultivates" as a synonym to "prevent."