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218: Boehner Talks Jobs, Economy in GOP’s Weekly Address


John A. Boehner raised eyebrows this week with comments openly mocking fellow Republicans, but the speaker was back on less-inflammatory rhetorical ground in Saturday’s weekly GOP address.

Boehner taped the address Friday at the Hartzell Propeller plant in Piqua, Ohio, roughly 25 miles north of Dayton, and he had one key message: It’s time to create jobs.

“I know why Americans are still asking the question ‘where are the jobs?’” Boehner said. “For the last five years, we’ve had an administration in Washington that acts as if everything can be done from the top down. From the stimulus to Obamacare, it’s a record littered with promises that never panned out — and pain for people trying to get by and meet a payroll.”

Boehner said Republicans are ready to improve job training, expand energy production, open new markets for small manufacturers and are ready to repeal and replace Obamacare.

“The president said he wanted this to be a year of bipartisan action. Well, it still can be. We just need to get his party’s leaders in the Senate to take up our jobs bills,” he said.

Boehner also used the weekly address as an opportunity to remind Americans of the Republicans’ accomplishments since taking control of the House, including a ban on earmarks, cuts to federal spending for two years running, the prevention of tax increases and the passage of three free trade agreements.

“So imagine what we could do if the powers-that-be in Washington changed course,” he said. “Imagine if they stopped treating our economy like a second language and started putting jobs first.”

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, has pushed the GOP to embrace an unemployment extension and increase the minimum wage.

Boehner’s full address:

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