Boehner: 'Where are the jobs?' is part of national lexicon

Republicans have made House GOP Leader John Boehner's refrain of "Where are the jobs?" into a central theme of the campaign, the Ohio lawmaker's office claimed Monday.

Boehner, who would likely become Speaker of the House under a Republican majority next year, released a new Web video featuring several media figures echoing the question he's been known to repeat at virtually every public appearance in the past year.

The video highlights the continued high jobless figures and an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent, which has been stuck at that spot for the past two months.

"It has now been 20 months since President Obama signed the ‘stimulus’ into law amid promises it would create jobs ‘immediately’ and keep unemployment below 8 percent," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel, who also pointed to the continually high unemployment rate since then.

"Americans are still asking, ‘Where are the jobs?’ and as this video shows, Washington Democrats still have no answers," Steel added.

The video is part of an effort by Republicans to keep the focus in Nov. 2's elections on jobs and the economy in the closing weeks of the campaign. Democrats have sought to downplay the negative economic figures, and have instead tried to cast Republicans as extreme and cozy with corporate interests.

But as a response, Republicans have consistently pointed to the Obama administration's own projections about the impact of its $787 billion stimulus bill. Those projections estimated that, with the help of the stimulus, the unemployment rate would have crept down to between 7 and 8 percent by now.