President Obama isn’t pulling his punches. At an event in Houston, the president ripped congressional Republicans on everything from equal pay to potholes.
At a Democratic fundraiser in Houston, the president said:
You would think that that at this point would not be a controversial proposition. And yet, the Republicans in the Senate uniformly decided to say no. Now, we had done an executive order yesterday facilitating federal contractors to provide basic information — (applause) — to make sure that if somebody shares their salary with a fellow employee that they couldn’t be retaliated against; that some data is provided — in aggregate, not in detailed ways — to make sure that people know whether or not they’re treating women the way they should on the job. But obviously the action I took through this executive order was restricted to federal contractors; it didn’t reach every employer.
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Now, apparently, a lot of these Republicans during the debate said they just think that this idea there’s a gender pay gap is a fantasy, it’s not real, there are all these other reasons why this happens. And in fact, I think there was a candidate for the Senate, a Republican in Michigan, who voiced the opinion that women make other choices. And I think that’s certainly true; every individual makes other choices. Very rarely do you meet people who make the choice to be paid less for doing the same job. (Laughter.)
But I use this as just one example of the scores of issues that are critical to advancing this country’s future in which not only is the other side blocking progress but aren’t even offering a persuasive alternative vision for how we’re going to grow the economy and make sure that anybody who works hard in this country can get ahead. This has become the least productive Congress in modern history, recent memory. And that’s by objective measures, just basic activity. At a time when the economy is actually poised to take off, at a time where we finally have recovered from the most crippling economic crisis since the Great Depression, at a time when the private sector has created close to 9 million new jobs and the housing market is recovering and we’ve got an energy boom going on in this country like we’ve never seen in a very long time, and the dropout rate is coming down and we’ve just got a lot of things going for us — and yet we’ve still got a lot of competition from countries like China and Germany — and this can be the American Century just like the 20th century was if we make some good decisions. If we’re investing in early childhood education; if we’re investing in rebuilding our roads and our infrastructure — because I got to tell you, driving here from the airport, it was a little bumpy. (Laughter.) And if you think the potholes are bad here, imagine what they’re like where we had one of the worst winters in recent memory.
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And that’s why I’m here today to talk to you, because we have to have a Congress that works — not one that is — march in lockstep, not one that agrees with every proposal I put forward, but a Congress that is serious about governance and is thinking about the next generation and not just the next election.
The president blasted congressional Republicans on everything from equal pay to the economy to pot holes. (When the federal government doesn’t spend on infrastructure maintenance, state governments don’t have the money to adequately maintain the roads, which leads to local governments being unable to fix that huge pothole on your street.) It is all part of the cost of Republican obstruction.
It is rare to see a president use such blunt language when describing Congress. Obama called out Boehner, McConnell and the entire Republican leadership in Congress for not taking their jobs seriously. Republicans in Congress have decided that their job is to halt all progress on every issue, but the GOP’s behavior is not what the Founders intended.
They would be horrified at what Republicans have done to their beautiful system of government. Obama was correct. The only way this nation is going to get a functional congress that is interested in something beyond their next reelection campaign is if voters throw the current Republicans out.
Obama has had enough and is going to fight with everything he has got to put an end to Republican obstruction once and for all.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
