Defiant Obama challenges GOP on jobs bill

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President Barack Obama gestures during a news conference in the East Room of the... (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Defiant and frustrated, President Barack Obama aggressively challenged Republicans Thursday to get behind his jobs plan or explain why not, declaring that if Congress fails to act "the American people will run them out of town."

The president used a White House news conference to attempt to heighten the pressure he's sought to create on the GOP by traveling around the country, into swing states and onto the home turf of key Republican foes including House Speaker John Boehner and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Giving a bit of ground on his own plan, he endorsed a new proposal by Senate Democrats to tax millionaires to pay for his jobs program. "This is not a game," he said.

Obama made no apologies for his decision to abandon seeking compromise with Republicans in favor of assailing them, sometimes by name. He contended that he'd gone out of his way to try to work with the GOP since becoming president, reaching hard-fought deals to raise the government's borrowing limit and avert a government shutdown, and had gotten nothing in return.

"Each time, what we have seen is games playing," the president said. "I am always open to negotiations. What is also true is they need to do something."

Obama was still at the lectern when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Republicans he would permit a test vote as early as late Thursday on the president's original measure. There was little doubt it would fail, the outcome Republicans hoped for.

The president predicted dire political consequences for his opponents if they don't go along.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2016420016_apusobama.html?prmid=head_main

[monmouth]

1. I hope Tweety is on himself tonight. He loves feisty...n/t

[woodsprite]

2. Would they ever have called Bush defiant? n/t