Obama ‘Will Not Take No for an Answer’ on Jobs Bill

President Obama today vowed to continue the fight for the American Jobs Act, declaring that “we will not take ‘no for an answer” on the morning after the Senate blocked action on his $447 billion jobs bill.

“A lot of folks in Washington and the media will look at last night’s vote and say, ‘Well, that’s it; let’s move on to the next fight.  But I’ve got news for them: Not this time, not with so many Americans out of work, not with so many folks in your communities hurting,” Obama said at the American Latino Heritage Forum hosted by the White House. 

A unified Republican caucus and a few Democrats prevented the legislation from getting the 60 votes needed to allow Senate consideration of the bill Tuesday night. 

“Even though a majority of senators voted in favor of the American Jobs Act, a Republican minority got together as a group and blocked this jobs bill from passing the Senate,” Obama said in his first public comments since the bill’s defeat. “They said ‘no’ to more jobs for teachers, ‘no’ to more jobs for cops and firefighters, ‘no’ to more jobs for construction workers and veterans, ‘no’ to tax cuts for small-business owners and middle-class Americans.” 

The president and congressional leaders have said they will proceed with a piecemeal approach to passing individual proposals in the president’s legislation. 

“We will keep organizing and we will keep pressuring and we will keep voting until this Congress finally meets its responsibilities and actually does something to put people back to work and improve the economy,” Obama said.