President Obama poked fun at former rival Mitt Romney and leading Republicans on Thursday, saying the GOP’s rhetoric on the economy was “starting to sound pretty Democratic.”
At the House Democratic Caucus retreat in Philadelphia, Obama noted that a “former Republican presidential candidate” was “suddenly, deeply concerned about poverty.”
“That’s great! Let’s go do something about it!” Obama added in a not-so-veiled jab at Romney, who is now testing the presidential waters and vowing to focus more on the issue of poverty this time around.
The Obama campaign repeatedly painted the former Massachusetts governor as an out-of-touch corporate raider in the 2012 race, successfully riding that message to an easy electoral victory.
Obama, who is set to unveil his budget Monday, attempted to claim credit for recent economic growth and said Republicans should support his plan to raise taxes on wealthier Americans and corporations.
“That’s pretty rare where you have two visions, a vigorous debate, and then you test who’s right,” Obama told the roomful of Democrats of the last six years. “The record shows that we were right.”
However, voters did not agree with that verdict in November, when Democrats lost control of the Senate — an embarrassing defeat for which many progressives blamed Obama.
“Obviously, we were all disappointed with the outcome of the last election,” Obama said Thursday night, attributing the loss to Democrats not better articulating their values.
Following a string of executive actions on issues ranging from immigration to Cuba, Obama vowed that he would not spend his final two years “sitting on the sidelines.”
And the president ripped into Republicans for not committing to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security unless he relents on his plan to spare up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
“That’s all you’ve been talking about,” Obama said in an appeal to Republican lawmakers, arguing that they are now ignoring border security.
Yet conservatives say Obama is the one not compromising, accusing him of taking constitutionally hazy action purely to brandish his legacy.
Republicans on Thursday said Obama was also taking Democrats down a perilous path.
“It’s a real head scratcher to see the remaining Democrats in Congress take messaging pointers from President Obama after he led his party to historic losses by saying his policies were on the ballot,” said Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short. “Democrats may be divided over messaging and a path forward, but as long as they stay united behind tax and spend big government policies that hurt the middle class, they’ll remain in the political wilderness for years to come.”
