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President Barack Obama took aim at Republican
lawmakers Monday, accusing them of holding the public hostage to
Washington politics by blocking extended unemployment benefits for
millions of out of work Americans.

      "It's time to do what's right, not for the next election, but
for the middle class," Obama said in a presidential jawboning
statement in the Rose Garden Monday morning.

      Lawmakers have battled for weeks over legislation extending
unemployment benefits to workers who have been out of a job for
long stretches of time. The last such extension expired at the end
of May, leaving some 2.5 million people without benefits.

      The Senate is set to take up the measure again Tuesday,
immediately following the swearing in of a replacement for the late
Sen. Robert Byrd. Filling that seat will give Democrats the 60
votes they need to block a Republican filibuster.

      Obama's argument has become a familiar one, as Democrats try to
use the Republican blockade of unemployment benefits as a wedge
issue heading into the November midterm elections.

      On Monday, he sought to cast his Republican opponents as
hypocritical for having voted for extensions of unemployment
benefits when his Republican predecessor, President George W. Bush,
was in the White House, but not now. He accused Republican leaders
of subscribing to what he called a misguided notion that providing
unemployment aid to people lowers their incentive to look hard for
a job.

      "That attitude, I think, reflects a lack of faith in the
American people," Obama said.

      The president said that the out-of-work people he hears from are
"not looking for a handout. They desperately want to work. Just
right now, they can't find a job."

      "These are honest, decent, hardworking folks who have fallen on
hard times through no fault of their own."

      The $34 billion needed to extend benefits would be borrowed,
adding to the nation's mounting debt. Republicans have tapped into
the public's anger and concern over the national debt, saying they
would support extending jobless benefits only if the bill was paid
for.

      "Everyone agrees on extending the additional unemployment
insurance, but the Democrat way is to insist we add it to the
national debt at the same time, while blocking Republican efforts
to pass the same extension without the debt," said Don Stewart,
spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
      

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President Barack Obama took aim at Republican
lawmakers Monday, accusing them of holding the public hostage to
Washington politics by blocking extended unemployment benefits for
millions of out of work Americans.


Obama to GOP: Restore unemployment benefits now

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