Politics

Obama blisters Republicans for opposition, GOP hits ‘hyper-partisan’ speech

Jon Ward Contributor
Font Size:

President Obama on Wednesday previewed the rhetorical case he’ll make against Republicans this summer and fall in the lead up to the November mid-term elections, using the GOP’s opposition to his new health law to argue that they want to take the country backwards.

“We can’t go back. We’ve got to move forward,” said Obama who repeated this theme throughout his roughly 30-minute speech.

Obama, in a speech at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, defended his record on the economy – trying to balance optimism at growing productivity with empathy and continued high unemployment rates – and lashed the GOP for not supporting his policies.

“A good deal of the other party’s opposition to our agenda has also been rooted in their sincere and fundamental belief about government. It’s a belief that government has little or no role to play in helping this nation meet our collective challenges,” Obama said.

“It’s an agenda that basically offers two answers to every problem we face: more tax breaks for the wealthy and fewer rules for corporations.”

Obama said that while the GOP message to Americans is that they are on their own, his party believes in providing a “basic safety net.” Many conservatives, of course, believe Obama’s agenda is to provide a safety net that is far more expansive and encompassing of most Americans, rather than basic.

The president’s speech drew scathing responses from Republicans in and out of government.

“The President diminishes the Office of the President when he resorts to straw man arguments that willfully mischaracterize the views of others,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, Ohio Republican. “All of the President’s talk of post-partisanship, reaching out, and finding common ground reminds us that the country deserves better than his hyper-partisan speech today.”

Karl Rove, a former top White House adviser to President George W. Bush, said it was a “slashing partisan” address.

And Ed Gillespie, former Republican National Committee Chairman and senior Bush adviser, called it “astonishingly partisan.”

“I guess Obama figures the only hope to turn around his plummeting poll numbers is launching partisan screeds, but he seems to just get smaller and smaller by the day,” Gillespie said. “He’d be better off trying to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf than spewing political bile into the media.”

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, used the opportunity to talk again about his YouCut program, which has begun to cause some heartburn for Democratic leaders.

“The same old politics that the President has been prone to engage in – like castigating and mocking those who disagree with his policies – are not solving America’s biggest problems,” Cantor said.

Obama touched briefly on the U.S. government’s national debt, which recently passed the $13 trillion mark, and the annual deficit between spending and revenues which is this year around $1.4 trillion.

“Meeting this challenge will require some very difficult decisions,” Obama said, referring to the fiscal commission he created earlier this year to study options for how to address the problem.

Obama said he “strongly” agrees with Republicans that some government programs will have to be cut.

“What I don’t agree with is the notion that we should also sacrifice critical investments in our people and our future,” he said.

The president also used the oil spill in the Gulf to call for energy legislation to be passed in Congress.

He acknowledged that there is not currently enough support in the Senate to pass the energy bill being sponsored by Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut Independent.

“The votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months,” Obama said.

Email Jon Ward and follow him on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel