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Obama: Passage of jobs bill means new 'American Century'
President Obama framed Tuesday evening’s planned vote on his jobs bill as a “moment of truth for the U.S. Senate."
The bill is not expected to acquire the 60 votes needed to take up the proposal, due in part to resistance from some Senate Democrats.He also snagged a phrase most recently used in a major foreign policy speech delivered Friday by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Obama urged passage of the jobs bill in order to make "this century … another American Century.”
Obama's use of "an American Century" contrasted sharply with that of Romney.
Romney said: "In an American Century, America has the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world. In an American Century, America leads the free world and the free world leads the entire world.”
He also said Obama was not the president to lead America back to being “the strongest nation on Earth.”
Obama said an “American Century” means implementing the ideas included in the jobs act. He also continued his emphasis on bridges as a focus of possible infrastructure improvement.
“This is gut check time,” he said. “Any senator who votes 'no' [on this bill] should have to look you in the eye and tell you what exactly they're opposed to."
He continued a strategy he’s used before, urging the audience to contact their representatives and urge them to vote for the bill, while adding an extra note of urgency by underlining Tuesday’s vote.
“Today, the Senate has a chance to do something about jobs right now by voting for the American Jobs Act,” he said.
He also accused Republicans, as he has before, of opposing the bill only because he introduced it.
Obama's re-election campaign doubled-down on that criticism in an email sent to supporters on Tuesday that accused Senate Republicans of engaging in a "kamikaze political strategy" to avoid getting anything done, as part of a plan to win the next election.
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