McCain: 'Let the games begin' on jobs

Former presidential contender Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hit back at President Obama on Monday for going after Senate Republicans’ jobs proposal while on a taxpayer-funded tour of states likely to be competitive in the 2012 elections.

“As they say, let the games begin,” said McCain from the Senate floor.

“Today the President of the United States in his visit to areas of the country that have a lot to do, in the view of many, with the upcoming election, attacked our plan and attacked it rather vociferously," he continued. "In fact I was somewhat taken back since the president and his spokesperson had billed his trip as a taxpayer-paid visit."

"On the taxpayer dime the president is now traveling and attacking the ... plan, I think unfairly,” continued McCain. 

McCain later suggested that “once the president gets off the campaign trail” the two parties could get together to discuss bipartisan proposals for sparking economic growth.

The senior senator from Arizona was on the floor to tout the GOP jobs plan, of which he is co-author. The plan would eliminate many government regulations, lower the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, eliminate the healthcare reform law — called “ObamaCare” by critics — and the Frank-Dodd financial reform act.

Obama, who launched a three-day bus tour through two states critical to his 2012 reelection campaign, remarked Monday that the Republicans' plan would result in "dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance."