Call him persistent, stubborn or hard-headed.
The White House is refusing “to take no for an answer” on its jobs plan, Vice President Joe Biden told the nation in the presidential weekly address.
Biden also promised that the Obama administration would continue to use executive action to advance its agenda to create jobs so that people could slowly start to pay off their tax debts and begin to live a better and stress-free life.
“If the Republican Congress won’t join us, we’re going to continue to act on our own to make the changes that we can to bring relief to middle-class families and those aspiring to get in the middle class,” Biden said.
Biden highlighted actions the president has already taken without congressional approval, including a plan to offer home refinance plans regardless of how underwater the mortgages are, capping student loan debt repayment levels and new prescription drug regulations.
He said that although October marked the twentieth consecutive month of private sector job growth — with 104,000 jobs created last month — the growth was not fast enough.
“As all you know, that’s not nearly enough,” he said. “We have to increase the pace.”
The vice president laid the blame at the feet of Senate Republicans, who required the American Jobs Act to pass with 60 votes, rather than the usual 51 votes, and have blocked all but minor portions of the jobs plan. He also sought to coax supporters into pressing congressional Republicans to go along with the president’s plan.
“The president and I need your help to tell your Republican congressmen and senators to step up,” Biden said. “Tell them to stop worrying about their jobs and start worrying about yours.”