The Hill News

The Friday-night deal struck by lawmakers and the White House to keep the government running through the next six months hopefully bodes well for future negotiations, White House senior adviser David Plouffe said Sunday.

“I actually think it was a good moment moving forward here,” Plouffe said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Our leaders in both parties on behalf of all Americans showed they could come together, compromise,” he said. “Compromise, by the way, cannot be a dirty word.”

Plouffe said he hopes the 2011 budget negotiations to avert a government shutdown can be a model for future political fights.

“We have to find common ground or else we're not going to move forward on education, on growing the economy or reducing our deficit,” said Plouffe, who engineered President Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Plouffe defended the administration’s role in accepting $38 billion in cuts in the 2011 budget dea! l.

“We preserved the things that are really important to us,” he said, citing medical research and the Head Start program.