The interesting thing about President Obama's hard hitting remarks about Republicans in the Rose Garden this morning is that he argued as explicitly as he has yet that Republicans who profess concern about the deficit are, well, full of it:
For a long time, there's been a tradition -- under both Democratic and Republican Presidents -- to offer relief to the unemployed. That was certainly the case under my predecessor, when Republican senators voted several times to extend emergency unemployment benefits. But right now, these benefits -- benefits that are often the person's sole source of income while they're looking for work -- are in jeopardy.
And I have to say, after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, the same people who didn't have any problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we shouldn't offer relief to middle-class Americans like Jim or Leslie or Denise, who really need help.
Also noteworthy: Obama took his most direct shot yet at the suggestion by some Republicans that unemployment discourages people from finding work, claiming they lack faith in the American people:
Over the past few weeks, a majority of senators have tried -- not once, not twice, but three times -- to extend emergency relief on a temporary basis. Each time, a partisan minority in the Senate has used parliamentary maneuvers to block a vote, denying millions of people who are out of work much-needed relief. These leaders in the Senate who are advancing a misguided notion that emergency relief somehow discourages people from looking for a job should talk to these folks.
That attitude I think reflects a lack of faith in the American people, because the Americans I hear from in letters and meet in town hall meetings -- Americans like Leslie and Jim and Denise -- they're not looking for a handout. They desperately want to work.
Obama blames "leaders in the Senate" for making these claims, though I think they've mainly come from Senate candiates like Sharron Angle and Rand Paul. Either way, this is some of the harshest stuff we've heard from Obama about Republicans. It's a reminder that there really is no substitute for the presidential podium in driving this kind of attack, and signals what's to come this fall.
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