The new leader of the U.S. Senate’s Budget Committee said Tuesday that Republican threats to shutdown the government are irresponsible.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said there will be opportunities to negotiate budget cuts without crafting a deal around increasing the county’s borrowing limit.

“The budget ceiling debate just puts our country in a very precarious position where we’re defaulting on our loans,” said Murray, who held a forum about job programs in Spokane on Tuesday. “That puts every business and person in our country in jeopardy. And it’s not a good place to be debating.”

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OLYMPIA — President Obama will hit the Washington state campaign ATM again next week. He's scheduled to attend two fundraisers in Seattle.

A press release this morning from the Obama campaign said Washington is on a list of stops the president will make to raise money: Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington and Louisiana.

No firm details on the stops yet, although there will be two in Portland before the two in Seattle.

Obama was last in Seattle, for a pair of fundraisers, on May 10, the day after he announced he'd changed his mind and was supporting same-sex marriage. He also made campaign money stops in Seattle in February and last September.