McConnell says Obama's policies don't match job-creation rhetoric

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday said that while President Obama talks about the need to create jobs, his policy decisions in three key areas go against his rhetoric.

"The fact is, many Americans have a hard time believing the president is focused on jobs when so many of his policies seem to be designed to destroy them," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

McConnell cited the administration's latest decisions on trade, energy and the national debt as examples. He said that in recent months, "the president himself has acknowledged that a reversal of his policies would create jobs and spur recovery."

On trade, he said Obama in January announced he had finalized a free-trade agreement with South Korea, and said agreements with Panama and Colombia would help create U.S. jobs. "Yet nearly five months later, he sent his aides out to say that he won't sign them into law unless Congress approves billions more in government spending first," McConnell said.

The remark was an apparent reference to the administration demand that an agreement on Trade Adjustment Assistance be struck first before any of the trade agreements can move.

On energy, McConnell said the administration continues to delay Gulf of Mexico drilling permits, and that "the national energy tax his administration is trying to pass through the EPA could cost, by some estimates, millions of jobs."

McConnell added that Obama has recognized in the past that the debt could be a huge drag on the economy, but said that under Obama's watch, the debt has increased 35 percent.

"So there's a pattern here," McConnell concluded. "The president likes to say he cares about the economy and jobs, but his policies tell an entirely different story."