HONOLULU — President Barack Obama is hailing a last-minute deal that pulled the country back from the "fiscal cliff," but says it's just one step in a broader effort to boost the economy and shrink federal deficits.

Obama said in his radio and Internet address Saturday that the new law, approved by Congress on New Year's Day and signed Thursday, raises taxes on the wealthiest Americans while preventing a middle-class tax increase that could have thrown the economy back into recession.

With one crisis for the short term, Obama faces new battles in Congress over raising the country's $16.4 trillion borrowing limit, as well as more than $100 billion in automatic spending cuts for the military and domestic programs which were delayed by two months under the compromise.