President Barack Obama attacked Republicans Friday for failing to pass an unemployment extension — or anything else on his agenda — while voting for a tax cut for the wealthy.  

“They’ve said no to extending unemployment insurance for more than three million Americans who are out there looking every single day for a new job, despite the fact that we know it would be good not just for those families who are working hard to try to get back on their feet, but for the economy as a whole,” Obama said during a campaign-style speech on the economy in Minneapolis. “Rather than invest in working families getting ahead, they actually voted to give another massive tax cut to the wealthiest Americans.”  

When the audience booed, Obama said,  “Don’t boo, by the way. I want you to vote.  I mean, over and over again, they show that they’ll do anything to keep in place systems that really help folks at the top but don’t help you. And they don’t seem to mind.” During his re-election campaign, the president frequently said, “I don’t want you to boo, I want you to vote!”  

Obama also knocked Republicans for being mad at his pen-and-phone executive agenda.  

“If you’re mad at me for helping people on my own, then why don’t you join me and we’ll do it together?  We’ll do it together. I’m happy to share the credit. You’re mad at me for doing some things to raise the minimum wage, let’s pass a law — Republicans and Democrats giving America a raise.  

“If you’re mad at me for taking executive action to make it easier for women to find out if they’re not getting treated fairly in the workplace, let’s do it together. You can share the credit. You’re worried about me trying to fix a broken immigration system, let’s hold hands and go ahead and make sure that this country continues to be a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. I want to work with you, but you’ve got to give me something. You’ve got to try to deliver something — anything.”  

As of now, Obama’s agenda is a smoking ruin in Congress — from an unemployment extension to immigration — but it at least gives him red meat to drive his voters to the polls in November.  

In an ABC interview that aired earlier Friday, Obama called the plans by Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, to sue him over his executive actions “a stunt.”    

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Will Obama Call Boehner on Unemployment Extension?


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