President Barack Obama went on the attack Saturday, accusing Republicans in the US Congress of attempting "to filibuster" US recovery and "obstruct" progress. "Too often, the Republican leadership in the United States Senate chooses to filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress. And that has very real consequences," Obama said in his weekly radio address.
He said that in order to facilitate credit for small businesses, his administration had proposed eliminating capital gains taxes on their investments and establishing a fund for small lenders to help small businesses.
"But again and again, a partisan minority in the Senate said "no," and used procedural tactics to block a simple, up-or-down vote," the president complained.
Obama said that over the past months, Senate Republicans had blocked three times a measure to temporarily extend unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans.
"Some Republican leaders actually treat this unemployment insurance as if it's a form of welfare," the president said. "They say it discourages folks from looking for work ... And we all have friends, neighbors, or family members who already know how hard it is to land a job when five workers are competing for every opening."
Obama said that while denying unemployment benefits to workers, Republicans have no problem spending money on tax breaks for wealthy Americans who don't need them.
"And every day this goes on, another 50,000 Americans lose that badly needed lifeline," the president stated.
