AP/ October 15, 2011, 11:23 AM

Obama to GOP on jobs bill: "Do the right thing"

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak points to his Detroit Tigers baseball cap as he and President Barack Obama tour the General Motors Orion assembly plant in Orion Township, Mich. on Oct. 14, 2011, to promote a new trade deal between the two countries. / AP Photo/Carlos Osorio

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says he's going to travel the country telling lawmakers to do their jobs and vote in favor of his economic proposals.

Coming off a week when his nearly $450 billion jobs bill died in the Senate, Obama made no reference to that failure, instead promising to renew efforts to get Republicans to vote on individual parts of the legislation.

"Next week, I'm urging members of Congress to vote on putting hundreds of thousands of teachers back in the classroom, cops back on the streets and firefighters back on the job," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

"And if they vote `no' on that, they'll have to tell you why," he said. "They'll have to tell you why teachers in your community don't deserve a paycheck again. They'll have to tell your kids why they don't deserve to have their teacher back. They'll have to tell you why they're against common-sense proposals that would help families and strengthen our communities right now."

Watch: Obama challenges GOP to pass jobs bill

Obama recorded the weekly address from the Detroit area, where he traveled Friday with the president of South Korea to highlight a free-trade agreement with South Korea as well as pacts with Colombia and Panama.

Obama praised Congress' rare bipartisan action on the trade deals but said lawmakers needed to do more. In the Senate earlier in the week, Republicans who object to higher taxes on the wealthy and spending proposals blocked his jobs bill. Now Obama and Senate Democratic leaders plan to break the measure into pieces and try to pass it that way — or blame the GOP for standing in the way.

The bill includes extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits as well as spending on public works projects and help for local governments to keep teachers and other public workers

"There's still time to create jobs and grow our economy right now. There's still time for Congress to do the right thing," said Obama, who is embarking on a three-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia on Monday to promote his jobs plans in two politically important states.

Republicans used their weekly address to criticize Obama's proposals while saying that they want to work with the president to create jobs, just without "more Washington spending and taxes."

"The president needs to get off the sidelines and get involved," said Representative Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California. "The president needs to come off the campaign trail and get to work."

He said the president should support legislation passed by the Republican-led House, including bills to roll back regulations.

According to McCarthy it's Obama — not the GOP — who is playing partisan games.

"Americans deserve progress, not partisanship," McCarthy said. "Americans deserve a long-term solution to our nation's spending problem so that we don't run up trillion-dollar annual deficits."

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fishguru00 says:: worst administration ever...; reply

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HarryOrielly says:: So Obama wants to put another half trillion on our debt- He hasn't even spent all the STIMULUS money- Part of it was used in the scheme to sell guns the the Mexican Drug Cartel- Pelosi totured Bush for the smallest mistakes but where is her outrage against this Democratic president?- why is not the FAST & FURIOUS scheme in the newsmedia every day on the front page?- could it be our newsmedia is controlled and they feed America only what they want us to hear? Holder lied under oath and Obama backed him up-; reply

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involved_indi says:

except for how he defines himself I can see much difference in this President and the former one.... this one escalates wars and gets us into new ones, he spends money likes its an endless supply, he ignores the will of the people... so what's the diffference? I guess it's that this one is less open, more manipulative and oh yeah is actually trying to destroy the country.


Gspivey4 replies:: linkicon reporticon emailicon; Obama's not destroying the country Gorge Bush did that Obama is trying to get this country back on its feet if those GOP ******** let him. The difference in Obama is that he's trying to make it better for everyone not just the rich like the GOP wants to do in fact how can the GOP and people that think like they do call themselves Americans when they are not trying to help no one but themselves? Also I feel that if Obama was a white man the GOP wouldn't have a problem with nothing he's trying to do and that's wrong it shouldn't matter what color he is.

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involved_indi says:: and the "right thing" is to throw away another half trillion on top of the trillion we threw away over the past 30 months???; reply

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longtree-2009 says:: obama hasn't exactly done the right things while in office. that aside, obama is a master at challenging, at playing the blame game, when he doesn't get his way. everyone seems to forget obama jammed his health care bill down everyone's throat. what has obama done for the majority of average u.s. citizens? nothing comes to mind. protestors with their chant of banks got bailout should be protesting the white house and congress where the bailouts were initiated and implemented. wall street, auto industry, and et al were only the recipients. then there is obama's solyndra, fast and furious guns smuggling. so where has obama done the right things? obama, democrats are no better than the republicans they besmirch.; reply

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rationall7 says:: Reasherch jobs created durning Presidental terms and you'll find the worst advancements or greatest declines followed the Bushs' G.H & GW who waged two wars on Iraq creating addational defence sepending and off-shoring of jobs approved by a GOP congress, no wonder we are, where we are today. Obama should be asking the GOP congress to right the wrong or fix their past mistakes, return tax levels on the wealthy should return to the Clinton era or even higher Reagen era tax levels on the wealthy.; reply

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rationall7 says:: Is Obama crazy, when did the GOP ever do the right thing?; reply

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moretruthnow says:: President Obama will need to keep traveling and explaining the Jobs Bill and how it will create two million jobs. This is something the GOP pretended to want for America. Jobs, jobs, and more jobs. They show how they really could care less about the jobless and any other issue that the middle class and working poor will face by voting against this bill just as the Senate republicans just did. There are some very sorry republicans who are always going to be concerned about the super wealthy and never for those that are not.; reply

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b4uigo says:

Pass This jobs bill Now! Pass a poece of this jobs bill Now! Irrelevant! That is what Obama has become. Irrelevant! And alone...


moretruthnow replies:: linkicon reporticon emailicon; Only in the tiny minds of corruption republicans. Only in the tiny minds of those who want the GOP to ruin the country with ruin.

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expatriate2 says:: Republicans have said on countless occasions that Obama's plans are unworkable and unrealistic. I am now forced to agree because he has asked the GOP to do the right thing. That is, indeed, impossible and unrealistic mainly through the lack of practice for more than five decades.; reply