Obama to GOP: Why are you blocking small business aid bill?
| Washington
At the end of what it had billed as 鈥渞ecovery summer,鈥� the Obama administration is offering a mixed-message response to a sputtering economy: promising to identify additional measures to boost growth while simultaneously dampening expectations for quick relief.
Just back from vacation, President Obama met with his economic advisers Monday and then delivered a brief statement to the press, blaming Republicans in Congress for blocking a small business aid package.
鈥淚 ask Republicans to drop the blockade,鈥� the president said.
Under criticism from embattled Democrats running for reelection for not focusing enough on voters鈥� economic concerns, Mr. Obama said, 鈥淢y economic team is hard at work identifying additional measures that could make a difference in both promoting growth and hiring in the short term and increasing our economy鈥檚 competitiveness in the long term."
The context for the remarks includes a report last week that growth has slowed to a 1.6 percent annual rate in the second quarter of the year. What's more, some private economists have said new jobless numbers, which will be released Friday, may be even worse than the current 9.5 percent national unemployment rate.
The president will spend much of the week on foreign affairs with a speech Tuesday on the end of the US combat role in Iraq followed later in the week by hosting direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians. The administration was eager to have Monday鈥檚 message focus on domestic issues.
But at a lengthy press briefing Monday afternoon, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs sounded a number of notes of caution about how much economic progress could be expected in the short term from any of the 鈥渢argeted measures鈥� to spur recovery that come forward from the administration.
鈥淚 think there is no doubt there is only so much that can be done,鈥� Mr. Gibbs said at one point. He also warned 鈥渢here is not one switch to flip and then the economy will somehow look better overnight."
Gibbs, a senior adviser to the president as well as his spokesman, said that in January 2009, when Obama came into office, no one had 鈥渁 sufficient grasp at the sheer depth of what we were facing.鈥�
And alluding to the role the previous Republican administration鈥檚 policies had in causing the nation鈥檚 economic problems, Gibbs said the nation was in 鈥渙ne big pothole 鈥� the size of which any stimulus was unlikely to fill.鈥�
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement in response to the president鈥檚 remarks, charging that 鈥渋nstead of growing jobs as promised, Washington Democrats have grown the size of the national debt, the federal government, and the unemployment rate.鈥�
