Obama Slams GOP for Obstructing Progress

(AP)  President Barack Obama is taking aim at Senate Republicans, accusing them of playing politics with measures that would extend benefits to the unemployed and increase lending to small businesses.

Striking a deeply partisan tone in his weekly Saturday radio and online address, President Obama said the GOP leadership has chosen to "filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress" by blocking votes on agenda items the president says would breath life into the economic recovery.

"These steps aren't just the right thing to do for those hardest hit by the recession," Mr. Obama said. "They're the right thing to do for all of us."

The address was recorded at the White House before President Obama flew to Maine on Friday for a weekend family vacation.

Lawmakers have been battling for weeks over extending unemployment benefits to workers who have been out of a job for long stretches of time. The last extension ran out at the end of May, leaving about 2.5 million people without benefits.

The House has already passed a bill to extend the benefits through November, but with the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, Senate Democrats don't have the 60 votes they need to overcome a GOP filibuster. The Senate plans to take up the measure again on Tuesday.

President Obama said lawmakers' obligation to extend benefits is both moral and practical, citing some economists who believe extending unemployment insurance is one of the most cost-effective ways to jump-start the economy because it puts money in the pockets of people who are likely to spend it quickly.

The $34 billion needed to extend benefits would be borrowed, adding to the nation's mounting debt. Republicans have tapped into the public's anger and concern over that debt, saying they would only support extending benefits if the bill was paid for.

President Obama pushed back in his address, accusing Republicans of making their stand at the expense of the unemployed "after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit."

Mr. Obama also called on lawmakers to send him a package of tax breaks and credit extensions for small businesses. Democrats are hoping to force Republicans to vote on the small business bill by the time Congress breaks for its August recess.

In their weekly address, Republicans focused on President Obama's recess appointment of Donald Berwick to the administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. By appointing Berwick while the Senate was in recess, President Obama was able to avoid a public hearing and Senate vote for his nominee - a move Republicans have called hypocritical amid Mr. Obama's promises of transparency.

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, who delivered the address, said Berwick's recess appointment is particularly troubling given the large role he'll play in implementing the massive health care overhaul the president signed into law earlier this year.

"The president's health care plan - the most sweeping overhaul of health care in our lifetime - cannot be implemented behind closed doors," Roberts said.

[cleric60]

"'If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will ... believe it, not that 'it becomes the truth'" So Pre. Obama keep on lying to your fellow USA citizens...sad to say some of them will believe your lies.

[chevyhotrod]

by variablespanner July 19, 2010 10:14 PM EDT
That War Resolution was passed because of CHERRY PICKED INTELLIGENCE AND OUTRIGHT LIES TOLD BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO congresspersons that were largely denied access to the full intelligence findings on the subject.


Are you telling us the President Clinton was denied the full intelligence findings on the subject and Hillary was unaware of these finding prior to the Bush Administration?

If you where to bother and go back and see what the Democrats were saying, they were just as critical of Iraq as anyone else, including Bush or Cheney.

[zoeymaddy]

i do not know personally anyone who is recieving unemployment insurance that will not get out and look for a job.my husband is laid off for almost a year now,and my hours where i work have been cut over ten hours per week,so this means not only is my husband out of a job,but WE are both out of insurance,since i do not make enough hours to qualify for company co pay insurance.funny thing is our local industry finder only brings in fast food,or convienent stores who pay minimum wage for part-time hours,again no insurance offered.funny thing though our utility bills don't seem to adjust to the economic times,they just keep going up,as does food,clothing and just the bares bones minimum things you need you need to exist.to have a congressman,who by the way raises their own pay every year or two,make stupid,moronic,insulting statements as has been made by the republicans,while wanting to keep tax cuts for their good buddies,is so infuriating.instead of wanting to take food out of the mouths of american children,why don't they STOP paying for illegial aliens to live life to the fulliest,then maybe, just maybe we would not have the huge debt,no law suits against states,the borders would be safe and then we could once again live the american dream!

[retm-w]

So if you had to live with 26 weeks unemployment and it ran out, and there were no extensions, what would you do? As for paying for illegal aliens what is the present administration doing about stopping them from recieving benefits?

[retm-w]

variablespanner

I asked simple questions. What would you do if there was no such thing as unemployment? Are you to good if your unemployment ran out to work for minimum wage and do the best you could? I was laid off in the 70's 26 weeks unemployment no extensions. I worked at part time minimum wage jobs and did the best I could to servive. And I don't belong to the tea party, that's a normal far left liberal comeback which you are. You want the government to take care of you from cradle to grave, because you don't want to take responsibility for yourself.

[candybug17]

when are the american people gonna insist on the congress take a pay cut!!!!!!how long are we gonna keep it up? they tell how to try to live, but they dont help any of us. just one of the paycuts wood be enuf to feed a family for a month or more

[raydernation]

@ pumpkin_2 & cleric60 --- what lies are the President telling? Its common knowledge before Congress adjourned for the 4th of July holidays, one Republican senator refused to vote to allow funds keep flowing to the unemployed. He cited it costs to much, in the meantime these people suffered.
Anybody who votes Republican after all the subversive things they've done, especially in the last 2 years need a lobotomy.
These people are subversives, you never had Senators yell out while the President was speaking when GWB was in power, the only tea party that was formed was a real one at someones house. These are spoiled brats who really believe this country is just for them, they need to be put over someones knee and get the s@#%t spanked out of 'em.

[retm-w]

Are you going to pay for the extension? Remember the dems agreed to paygo.

[UForgotPoland]

Hell yeah Republicans are against progress. They want to go back to the days where God ruled and we lived in city states!

[pumpkin_2]

Mr. President and your administration are the ONLY problem. You are playing Politics and don't give a damn about the American People. You should be working for us not against. Keep destroying and see what is left.
CAK
US Citizen

[cleric60]

"'If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will ... believe it, not that 'it becomes the truth' So, Prez. Obama keep on lying to your fellow USA citizens. Sad to say, some of them will believe your lies."

[documemts]

If only!

[ibsteve2u]

Thinking some mistakenly group "small and medium" corporations with "large" corporations.

For instance, the United States Chamber of Commerce represents the interests of only large corporations...the Republicans represent the interests of only large corporations...and so on.

If you follow the money, it is plain to see...given the fact that the larger corporations have $2 trillion in cash sitting idle, and the banks have another $1 trillion in excess reserves in the Fed (earning 25 basis points, in an outstanding example of corporate welfare)...

Well, you are left with only one conclusion: They have no desire to create jobs in America, and are holding that money away...keeping it from working...in an attempt to leverage more corporate and wealthy tax cuts.

lollll...which, whether they get them or not, is moot - because the artificially biased currency exchange rates with the U.S. dollar mean that you can STILL pay someone offshore 1/10th of the wage of a U.S. factory worker who must deal with a much higher cost of living, so what kind of idiot is going to create jobs in America given how the game is rigged to favor all nations EXCEPT America?

If the Republicans cared about "small and medium" corporations, they would address those issues which force "small and medium" corporations to compete with offshore manufacturers who enjoy rigged currency exchange rates and criminally insubstantial environmental and worker wage and safety laws...

Without working us to death even as they poison us.

[ibsteve2u]

There is one...layer...of good investments in manufacturing in America: If "whatever it is" is mechanically and electronically simple enough to require few workers, but so large as to make its handling and shipping from someplace like Vietnam, China, or India cost-prohibitive.

Hence, wind-power generation manufacturing, as one example, is doing well. Those towers and vanes are HUGE, but technically (well, if you get the jigs right) simple...so that industry is actually growing here.

[Perish1]

Suzlon is and Indian owned company. They make the blades here but their upper management is Indian. (India Indian)

[infantryman1968]

by noloyalisti July 19, 2010 1:49 PM EDT
We are seeing the end result of the Reaganomics globalization disaster. The corporate takeover was finally completely implemented by the Bushoccio Crime Family. Now it is "The Other 98%" against the top 2%.

LOL!

The top 2% pay 98% of the taxes to the US.

[ibsteve2u]

I don't know why the right so hates Obama. After all, with the exceptions of a soft slap to the hand of deregulation (which doesn't appear to do much to separate the American people's money from Wall Street's greed, if the ads for Schwab's "FDIC-insured deposits!" are any tell-tale) and the possible expiration of da Boosh's tax cuts, the primary wealth-transfer tools of the few who are the right - the controllers of the Republican Party - are still in place:

1) "Flood-up/trickle-down" economics, Reagan-flavor

2) Inequitable free trade, Republican/Clinton/neoliberal/"Blue Dog" Democratic flavor.

The latter two and the remnants of deregulation (which is coupled with Congressional legislation that modified the tax code to force middle Americans into 401Ks and IRAs...that is, onto Wall Street where it may be - and IS - periodically harvested) are still roaring along...

Still incentivizing greed at the top...still incentivizing the obliteration of the American job in favor of artificially cheaper offshore labor...

Still incentivizing the destruction of our industrial base...still incentivizing the burgeoning expansion of offshore pollution sources...

lolll...heck, the right should LOVE Obama...and I daresay that the true right...the true power that controls our corporations, our banks, Wall Street, and the emotions of the Republican base...surely does.