RACINE, Wis. — Speaking in a southeastern Wisconsin city hard hit by the recession, President Barack Obama on Wednesday touted economic gains made since he took office and chastised congressional Republicans who he says are standing in the way of economic reforms.
Referring to “a minority of senators from the other party,” the president questioned their tactics in blocking an economic relief package designed to extend unemployment benefits, increase access to small-business loans and fund public-sector jobs in education and law enforcement.
“As we speak, they’re using their power to stop this relief from going to the American people,” he said. “In fact, they won’t even let these measures come up for a vote.”
He also directed criticism at House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who recently characterized a Wall Street overhaul package currently before Congress as “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.”
“This is the same crisis that led to the loss of 8 million jobs,” Obama said to loud applause. He called Boehner “out of touch with the struggles of everyday families.”
The Racine event began with prepared remarks by Obama, then became a town-hall-style forum, with the president striding the stage, microphone in hand, suit jacket off.
Audience members mostly supported Obama, thanking him before asking polite questions about topics including mortgage reform, the trade deficit and last year’s economic stimulus package.
The president said he judges the stimulus package a success, saying it provided emergency relief at a time when the economy was shrinking at a rate of 6 percent and hemorrhaging 750,000 jobs a month.
He also touted what he described as tax cuts that went to 95 percent of Americans, but he acknowledged that most people didn’t notice that their taxes had been cut because it was an adjustment of the withholding in payroll.
“Most of us didn’t know it,” he said, joking that the more politically astute way to deliver the cuts would have been to send each taxpayer “one big check with my picture on it.”
He noted that private sector jobs have increased for five consecutive months but acknowledged that much work remains in places such as Racine, which has the second-highest unemployment rate in Wisconsin.
“I know that for a lot of Americans — for Racine and many other communities — it’s not headed there fast enough,” he said. “Not if you’re out of work. Not if you can’t pay the mortgage. Not if you can’t take care of your family. I understand that.”
