U.S. President Barack Obama hammers Republicans over their newly unveiled campaign agenda, calling the opposition party's economic ideas (quote) “disastrous”. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says Republican plans to roll back healthcare reform and extend Bush era tax cuts for top U.S. earners will not fix the nation's economic woes.
”The Republicans who wanna take over congress offer their own ideas the other day. Many were the very same policies that led to the economic crisis in the first place. We're just surprising since many of other leaders were among the architects of that failed policy. It's grounded in the same worn out philosophy: cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires, cut the rules for Wall Street and the special interests. And cut the middle class loose to fend for itself. That's not a prescription for a better future. It's an echo of a disastrous decade we can't afford to relive.”
Republicans as well as so-called T Party activists have been out in 4th ahead of November elections, calling Obama's policies disastrous and promising to address the economy more effectively if they take over one or both Houses of Congress after the elections. The White House has sought to pin Republican ideas as remnants from former President George W. Bush's years in office, a period which Obama's team stresses led to one of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Obama targeted Republican proposals on deficit cutting and tax cuts.
”For all their talk about reining in spending and getting our deficits under control, they want to borrow another 700 billion dollars and use it to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.”
Mid-term elections in November will determine whether or not Democrats maintain control of both Houses of Congress, which will be a key factor for Obama's agenda going forward.
Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters
