http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-hawaii-20111113,0,1229116.storyGOP lawmakers out of step with Americans on jobs plan, Obama says
President Obama
President Obama delivers remarks at a news conference after the closing ession of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Honolulu. (Kent Nishimura / Getty Images / November 13, 2011)
By Peter Nicholas Washington Bureau
November 13, 2011, 11:17 p.m.
Reporting from Honolulu—
Republican lawmakers may be smothering his jobs bill, but their intransigence could get them booted out of office, President Obama said.
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"And that's part of the reason why the American people right now aren't feeling real good about Congress.
Normally, by the way, the way politics works is if the overwhelming majority of the American people aren't happy with what you're doing, you start doing something different. So far that hasn't happened in Congress -- and the Republicans in Congress in particular."Obama's jobs plan aims to rebuild roads, bridges and ports; keep teachers and public employees on the job; and expand a temporary payroll tax cut.
The Senate last week passed two small pieces of the plan -- tax credits for companies that hire disabled veterans and repeal of a tax on companies that do business with government. The House is expected to take up the measures this week.
Obama said he wouldn't give up on passing the plan in its entirety. Should the impasse continue, he warned, voters may be the ones to force action.
"So I'm going to keep on pushing," he said. "And my expectation is that we will just keep on chipping away at this. If you're asking me do I anticipate that the Republican leadership in the House or the Senate will suddenly decide that I was right all along and they will adopt 100% of my proposals, the answer is no. I don't expect that. Do I anticipate that at some point they recognize that doing nothing is not an option? That's my hope. And that should be their hope too, because if they don't, I think we'll have a different set of leaders in Congress."