McConnell on Obama’s Jobs Speech: “It’s a Re-Election Plan”
EmailOn the day that President Obama heads to Capitol Hill to deliver his jobs plan, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declared that the effort amounts to nothing more than campaign speech.
“This isn’t a jobs plan. It’s a re-election plan,” McConnell said on the Senate floor this morning. “It’s time the president starts thinking less about how to describe his policies differently and more time thinking about devising new policies.”
McConnell criticized the president for writing the plan in “secret without any consultation with Republicans,” and brushed aside the White House’s statement that the plan is bipartisan. McConnell echoed other Republicans who have called the jobs plan just another stimulus package.
“The first stimulus didn’t do it. Why would another one? This is one question that the White House and a number of Democrats clearly don’t want to answer,” McConnell said. “The problem here isn’t the politics, it’s the policy.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., by comparison called for Senators to rally around the president’s proposal tonight, noting that Republicans have supported parts of the plan.
“Republicans have always supported tax cuts. They’ve done it in the past and they agree that we must bring America’s infrastructure up to 21st century standards. I hope that in fact is the case. But if my Republican friends oppose these proposals now that they’ve supported in the past, the reason will be very clear simply partisan politics.”
Reid said tonight is a chance for members of Congress to show that “necessity” should “trump ideology.”
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To Mitch McConnel anything the president does is a re-election plan, since McConnell’s only agenda is to stop his re-election. McConnell is such a jerk
Posted by: tmferretti | September 8, 2011, 2:31 pm 2:31 pm
So is that why Republicans are blocking legislation in House to create American jobs? Because it is all about not re-electing Obama?
Republicans don’t seem to give a darn about the unemployed or our economy, all they care about is defeating Obama in 2012. Their patriotism is in tatters.
Posted by: Lydia | September 8, 2011, 3:34 pm 3:34 pm
The republicans don’t really care about America; they just want Obama to fail. They should all be tried for treason!
Posted by: Justuspofolks | September 8, 2011, 5:05 pm 5:05 pm
Yesterday, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development issued a report: current “austerity” policies and financial deregulation will bring the global economy to its knees; without KEY stimulus spending, the report says our BEST-CASE scenario a decade of stagnation.
Does McConnell ever READ or listen to anything outside his antiquated ideology? Does he even CARE about the jobless people in his state or around the nation?
Posted by: green.goddess | September 8, 2011, 5:06 pm 5:06 pm
Mr. McConnell is correct! Obama is sliding to the bottom of public approval ratings, and he needs something to slow his descent. Jobs are in high demand now, and Obama hopes that American will buy his promises out of desperation. But -if anything- the speech is probably an indicator of his own re-election fears – if not a desperation!
Even if he gets some appropriation for some new jobs, those federally funded jobs are short term measures and artificial. They won’t turn around the current recession, nor will they be a growth in the U.S. economy. They will be only a short-term bandage to stop the bleeding on his “public approval ratings,” and nothing more than a “mirage” of economic improvement to fool the public. He is still dumping about $ 12 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan – money that could have been invested internally to fire our economic engine here.
Unless the Americans wake up and dump him in 2012, he will continue to drop mountains of cash in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan until 2014 and beyond! The Americans don’t need more economic bandages; they need leadership but Obama has delivered only rhetoric and nothing more. I have just received an e-mail from the white house alerting me not to miss his speech tonight, but I will skip it! I have had enough of his rehashes and re-labeled phony promises intended to whitewash his 3 years of abject failures. Economic packages are just like a “bag of grain” – according to the late British philosopher and antiwar activist Bertrand Russell. People don’t needs bags of grain today that will last a few days only before hunger returns; they need job security, economic stability, and continuity.
After 4 years of Obama promises – since the start of his 2007 campaigning for president- most Americans are far worse that they were in 2007 because they have lost their homes and theirs saving since then! It is about time that the adage: “You fool me once, shame on you; you fool me twice, shame on Me” comes to roost into the minds and the empty nests of all Americans impoverished by Obama’s inept leadership. I believe that we should just wait to re-plant our votes elsewhere in 2012. Enough has been enough! Nikos Retsos, retired professor
Posted by: Nikos Retsos | September 8, 2011, 5:16 pm 5:16 pm
Green Goddess: Mitch McConnell doesn’t care; he just wants Obama to fail! This will all backfire on the GOP. A lot of Americans are finally wising up to what the GOP is trying to do!
Posted by: Justuspofolks | September 8, 2011, 5:34 pm 5:34 pm
Niko Ret Sos: We need to dump the GOP in congress, give them a little power and we get our first down grade, give them more we’ll get Bush part II.
Posted by: phantomniter | September 8, 2011, 5:41 pm 5:41 pm
If only we could fast forward to 2012 and get leadership that will do more than give speeches!
Posted by: Diane | September 8, 2011, 5:50 pm 5:50 pm
I hope everyone is correct about this backfiring on the Republicans,but I said that the U.S. would not vote for a draft dodging,Yalie,Gov like GWB,and yet they did,my biggest fear is that some extremist wins because he is not Obama.But even in the debate,the Republicans already don’t like his plan,and no one knows what it is,but the Republicans don’t like it
Posted by: asanetxn | September 8, 2011, 5:52 pm 5:52 pm
Republicans and Democrats are BOTH to blame for this mess. This all didn’t happen overnight, America has been in steady decline since the 1980′s. Our political parties have been bought out by the Big Banks and Corporate America. Our best paying jobs have been sent overseas simply because the top 2% of our population, that already had more than enough, wanted *even more* In Japan the highest paid CEO’s make 10-12 times the pay of the average worker. In the US it’s 300-500 times. Where do you think that extra money came from? YOUR paycheck. When our “leaders” receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the Big Banks and Corporations, just where do you think their allegiance will be? ( hint, it isn’t you). The people of this nation need to band together and work together. We need each other, not the political wrangling of politicians who want us divided. We are the UNITED States and we need to behave as such if we are to have any hope of coming through this.
Posted by: Katie in Como | September 8, 2011, 6:32 pm 6:32 pm
“I believe that we should just wait to re-plant our votes elsewhere in 2012. Enough has been enough! Nikos Retsos, retired professor”
Where should we re-plant our votes Professor Retsos? Who in the crazy Republican carnival of candidates would better address your concerns?
- Turn around the current recession
- Stop dumping billions in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Job security, economic stability, and continuity
Enlighten us. Exactly which Republican do you think could quickly solve these problems? In my view, NOT ONE.
And, worse, a Republican will continue the hard-right push to eliminate social programs while demanding new Big Government legislation on social issues such as restrictions over Gay Marriage or forced sonograms for pregnant women. No thanks.
Posted by: green.goddess | September 8, 2011, 6:36 pm 6:36 pm
It is a campaign speech and nothing more.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | September 8, 2011, 7:43 pm 7:43 pm
I wish the republicans would come up with a reelection plan. Because right now, from what they are (or aren’t) doing, there’s no reason to vote for any of them.
Posted by: Thomas | September 8, 2011, 9:09 pm 9:09 pm
I can certainly where the Average Republican voter is getting tired of the Anti- “Anything Obama Says” crowd in Washington. This is what you have voted upon America… someone ready to do nothing to help the Nation succeed.
I think the Tea Party is fixing to wrap up and we’ll see fewer Republican Obstructioneer’s in the years to come. Its to the point now where Sarah Palin can’t draw a crowd of 100, the Tea Party Express is being shunned by 1/2 of the registered splinter groups, and the Best and Brightest running for Repub Pres are competing to see who can be the most Anti-Obama of them all.
Posted by: DewyB | September 8, 2011, 11:11 pm 11:11 pm
“McConnell is such a jerk”
This bears repeating.
McConnell is such a jerk.
That’s pretty much all there is to it.
Posted by: Cru | September 8, 2011, 11:40 pm 11:40 pm
Remember for the Republicans, it doesn’t matter what it is, it doesn’t matter if it’s good for America, it doesn’t matter whether it was something they themselves proposed before. If President Obama proposed it previously they are against it. Republicans are the bascially stupid, direction-less America haters whose only plan is to say “No” to anything President Obama says. I hope Americans can see through this.
Posted by: mieoux | September 9, 2011, 2:14 am 2:14 am
I agree that Republicans should be tried for treason, they sacrifice America and Americans just to remove President Obama. And one important characteristic is that they do not present solutions themselves, they are just there to say “No” to President Obama. I hope Americans are observing this.
Posted by: mieoux | September 9, 2011, 2:17 am 2:17 am
Obama is just making another speech/photo op for re-election. He lost his “Hope and Change” slogan.
Posted by: California | September 9, 2011, 3:27 am 3:27 am
Once again, Obama pledges hundres of billions of dollars that we don’t have to mainly go to Democrat special interests: teachers, union construction workers, and the like. Plus more wasted money on green jobs. None of this will create wealth or lasting employment. After the money is spent and the jobs are gone, he will ask for more. He’s so predictable, and so are the liberals who applaud him for wasting our money.
Posted by: Murphy | September 9, 2011, 8:21 am 8:21 am
What is wrong with people that they will watch people suffer, listening to the president’s speech it gave hope to million of Americans ,then you turn to fox news and have it all sucked away by hannity and bacchman and other republicians this is unbelievable that congress didn’t pass that bill as he was giving his speech they will have hell to pay in 2012 four more years.
Posted by: tonraus | September 9, 2011, 10:43 am 10:43 am
Murphy–”Once again, Obama pledges hundres of billions of dollars that we don’t have to mainly go to Democrat special interests: teachers, union construction workers”…so what’s the GOP’s plan? Cut taxes for the corporations? I’m sure they would pass it along to their American workers, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
Posted by: america2929 | September 9, 2011, 11:28 am 11:28 am
MURPHY
The national debt goes up and down in relation to the economy. The important thing is to get America working again and the debt will take care of itself. That old republican throw down “our children will have to pay the debt” is ridiculous. When I grew up we had a large debt after WWII and lo and behold in a few years it was way down. I’m sorry but growing up, the national debt was not my concern, nor should it have been.
The republicans are using the national debt, which has been raised many, many times by both republican and democratic presidents as an excuse to do nothing. It’s obvious their only agenda is stopping this president from being re-elected. The American public is not buying what the republicans are selling as evidenced by their dismal approval numbers.
Posted by: tmferretti | September 9, 2011, 11:37 am 11:37 am
Joint sessions of congress in the past have only been held for momentous historic occasions. The timing of his pitch for more spending is very suspect of political posturing and has no more credence than a high pressure salesman. This Chicago neighborhood hack has not only made a mockery of the Presidency, the Oval office, and the Whitehouse; but our National pride and it’s place in the world. The pretzel logic of the dyslexic left at least has the hope they can live on the change in their piggy banks!
Posted by: Krakabitch | September 9, 2011, 12:27 pm 12:27 pm
Mitch McConnell has spent years in the Senate as the head of the Do-Nothing Party. He has done nothing to benefit the citizens of his state or our country. His refusal to allow monies to repair our deteriorating infrastructure is directly responsible for hard working people having to endure the lost business and traffic nightmare of the now closed Sherman Minton Bridge. He not once shown any kind of foresight or leadership. Absolutely a tool of his party. What a dismal legacy he has created for himself.
Posted by: RKJ | September 12, 2011, 3:43 pm 3:43 pm