Posted on 08/11/2011 1:46:14 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Obama: ‘Last thing we need’ is for Congress to return to DC By Sam Youngman - 08/11/11 03:15 PM ET
Obama blasted Congress from the road on Thursday, saying things would be worse if lawmakers returned to Washington.
“There is nothing wrong with our country,” Obama said in a speech at a Holland, Mich. plant. “There is something wrong with our politics.”
Obama rolled out what sounded like a new campaign theme Thursday that makes Washington gridlock his foil and the obstacle to increased economic recovery.
Obama criticized and mocked Congress's months-long fight over a deal to raise the debt ceiling and reduce deficits, and said he would not heed suggestions to call Congress back to Washington during the August recess.
“The last thing we need is Congress spending more time arguing in D.C.,” Obama, grasping for an aggressive message amid economic turmoil, said to applause from the crowd.
“What I figure is they need to spend more time out here listening to you and hearing how fed up you are. That's why I'm here.”
In raking Congress over the coals, Obama, with his sleeves rolled up, tried to get in front of near universal disgust with Washington politics that has peaked since the debt ceiling agreement.
While Obama’s own poll numbers have faltered, Congress has hit all-time lows with the public.
A new poll by The Washington Post published Thursday showed that almost 75 percent of Americans “have little or no confidence in Washington to repair the economy.”
Eight of 10 respondents said that they are “dissatisfied with the way the political system is working, up dramatically from late 2009,” according to The Post poll.
A Gallup poll this week found just 24 percent of Americans said most members of Congress deserve reelection, the lowest total ever recorded by Gallup.
The president, who made his appearance on the same day a crowd of Republicans hoping to replace him attended the Iowa State Fair and prepared for their Thursday night debate, is not immune from that disdain for Washington, however.
The Washington Post poll showed that only 33 percent of respondents are confident that Obama will make the right decisions on the economy.
In Michigan, Obama did not single out Republicans or Democrats, but blasted Congress for what he said had been “the worst part of partisanship, the worst part of gridlock.”
“There are some in Congress right now who would rather see their opponents lose than American win,” Obama said. “And that's got to stop.
“We're supposed to all be on the same team. Especially during tough times,” he said.
As he did in the waning days of the debt fight, Obama urged the audience to write their members of Congress to urge them to “stop sending out press releases” and instead vote on legislation Obama said would immediately start creating jobs.
In discussing the recent decision by S&P to downgrade the United States' credit rating from AAA to AA, Obama said the trouble “could have been entirely avoided if there had been a willingness in Congress to compromise.”
“It was a self-inflicted wound,” Obama said.
The S&P downgrade added new uncertainties to the economy and has increased volatility on financial markets.
Earlier in the week, stocks plunged as Obama tried to reassure voters on the economy. The visuals were better Thursday, with the Dow Jones up more than 400 points as cable news carried the president’s remarks from Michigan.
The gridlock and the political circus that caused uncertainty and led to the credit rating downgrade are why people have turned against Washington, Obama said.
“That's why people are frustrated,” Obama said. “Maybe you hear it in my voice. It's why I'm frustrated. Because you deserve better.”
“It was a self-inflicted wound,” Obama said.
Just like machine-gunning off your leg with trillion and a half dollar a year deficits.
I don’’t think he made any friends with that statement.
And he is going to need all of the friends he can get. Can you imagine a Demo congress not supporting him?
New Tag Line.
Thanks, Barrack...
I agree. Now, if we could convince Obama to just stay on vacation and stop touching stuff we might get somewhere.
The last thing we need is for HIM to return to DC.
Which he can fix. “I hear by resign the office of President”
Ahhhhh, that goes for you too Buckooo!
The tax and spend Democrats just know how to borrow and print money and complain that the "rich" are not carrying their "fair" share!
Fixed.
This stupid looser isn’t going to back off. He just keeps digging deeper.
He’s panicking, he knows he’s seen as the complete failure that he is.
This all makes me laugh at the white hating bastard son of a Communist whore.
Talk about frustrated. This American is frustrated for lack of LEADERSHIP on the part of Obama.
This stupid looser = loser
What a guy!
Only those that may opose his policies have to ride in the back of the bus.
No, there is something wrong with our President!
All we really need are more committees and Czars. /s/
No, that would be the second thing. The first “thing” is you returning, you useless, ignorant, narcisistic, marxist a$$hole.
Don't beat around the bush, tell him what you really think of him.
that tells me they should....
Dick Obama, shouldn’t you be out playing golf or something?
There is no doubt that Zer0 spends his vacation time to connive his next steps in his Marxist mission. He might reread John Maynard Keynes book The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money (1936), which is the backbone to the Fabian Socialist movement throughout the world. While writing this reply, I found these words:
"It is a scheme to exploit the “dog eat dog” element in human nature in order to put over something which the average Keynesian entrepreneur considers rather remote, i.e. to use one set of capitalists to help bury their competitors and then apply the final coup de grace to the whole system of private enterprise. This, incidentally, is the principle that enabled the Bolsheviks to assume political power in Russia with ridiculously small forces."
-----Zygmund Dobbs, Kaynes at Harvard Economic Deception as a Political Credo
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