Obama: government shut down avoided after budget deal

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday that compromises by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers involving "painful" spending cuts had secured a budget deal and avoided a shutdown of the U.S. government

In remarks at the White House less than an hour before a midnight deadline to shut the government down, Obama thanked the leaders of both parties for reaching an agreement he said delivered the deepest spending cuts in U.S. budget history.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Alister Bull; editing by Philip Barbara)