Obama returns to Oahu to resume his vacation

President Barack Obama not only returned to Hawaii Wednesday but also was back on the golf course.

A week after rushing to Washington to help end a tense, end-of-year standoff with Congress, the president resumed his annual Hawaii vacation.

Obama’s visit here had been interrupted as he and members of Congress contended with the unfinished business of the “fiscal cliff” crisis that threatened to throw the economy back into recession.

The Republican-controlled House gave final legislative approval Tuesday night to a package that avoids income tax increases for most Americans and delays for two months billions of dollars in across-the-board spending cuts. Minutes later, Obama appeared in the White House briefing room to praise the deal in an eight-minute speech.

“And I hope that everybody now gets at least a day off, I guess, or a few days off, so that people can refresh themselves, because we’re going to have a lot of work to do in 2013,” he said.

A short time later, Obama was aboard the presidential helicopter, bound for a Maryland Air Force Base. Barely 30 minutes after he had finished his remarks he was in the sky on Air Force One, bound for Hawaii.

The president arrived in Honolulu before 5 a.m. to rejoin his family in their rented beachside vacation home in Kailua. 

Obama and his family had spent several days, including Christmas, at the compound before he returned to Washington on Dec. 26 for the fiscal cliff negotiations.

The White House said Wednesday night that Obama signed the bill resulting from those talks, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

Obama has spent much of his time in Hawaii golfing with friends Marty Nesbitt, Bobby Titcomb and Allison Davis at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, where he also has gone for near-daily workouts, including one on Wednesday shortly after his arrival. He dined at Alan Wong’s with family and friends Wednesday.

Having finished a year marked by a grueling campaign for a second term, Obama has much work ahead of him in the new year.

The fiscal cliff deal delays by two months billions in scheduled spending cuts.

It also sets up battles between Democrats and Republicans over federal spending and debt.

The first showdowns will come during the next three months, when the government’s legal ability to borrow money expires and temporary financing for federal agency budgets will lapse. Republicans have said, as they did in 2011, they will demand spending cuts as a condition for extending the debt ceiling.

Obama also faces decisions over Cabinet appointments, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expected to leave.