With little room to maneuver in a relentlessly pinched economy, President Obama lashed out at Republicans, demanding the minority party “drop the blockade” of his fiscal policies.
“Every single day, I’m pushing this economy forward, repairing the damage that’s been done,” Obama told reporters in the Rose Garden.
On his first day back from vacation, Obama moved quickly to use the rhetorical vacuum of congressional recess to pump up his message on the election’s top issue.
Calling on senators when they return next month to pass a package of tax breaks and other assistance for small business, Obama complained that Republicans are playing “political games” and holding the bill hostage.
The president’s message was also a sharp turn into campaign politics — flavored with partisan blaming, a defense of his own policies, and an uplifting message about his “confidence in the American people.”
“It’s going to take a full-scale effort, a full-scale attack that not only helps in the short term but builds a firmer foundation that makes our nation stronger for the long haul,” Obama said.
But with no significant new policies to address persistent concern about jobs and the economy, the president was left with essentially repackaging shopworn talking points.
“Instead of growing jobs as promised, Washington Democrats have grown the size of the national debt, the federal government and the unemployment rate, and now the administration is calling for a massive tax hike on small businesses in the middle of a recession,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
“It’s no surprise that most Americans think the country is on the wrong track and Democratic policies have failed,” he said.
Tax cuts are a key point of contention. Obama hopes to cancel the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and extend tax cuts for the middle class.
Republicans want to extend all tax cuts, arguing that failure to do so amounts to a tax increase at the worst possible time for the nation.
“As if on cue, the same Washington politicians who have spent the last 18 months borrowing and spending our economy into the ground are now fretting over whether we can afford the ‘cost’ of stopping job-killing tax hikes,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
“Only in Washington would it be acceptable to think that taxpayers should have to pay for the privilege of keeping more of their own hard-earned money,” he said.
Recent government reports found the economy came to a near standstill in the second quarter of this year, while home sales and other economic indicators continue to lag. Unemployment remains high at 9.5 percent.
In addition to extending tax cuts for the middle class, Obama plans to soon develop new policies reforming export controls as a way to improve the economy.
Experiencing audio failure — an apt metaphor for his troubles bucking up Americans about the economy — Obama warned the recession was nearly a decade in the making, and it is taking “longer than any of us would like to climb our way out.”
