Axelrod pressures lawmakers to work with president on jobs

David Axelrod said Sunday that lawmakers need to take action to jumpstart the struggling economy.

Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Axelrod, a senior strategist for President Obama's reelection campaign, previewed the coming jobs speech by the president next month. Axelrod emphasized that renewing a payroll tax cut and rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure will be among the items Obama will want to push through.

“Some will be new. Some we have already talked about,” Axelrod said. “Some he has been asking Congress to do for some time.”

Axelrod said he has been disheartened by talk from Republicans that little will get past this Congress this fall, including renewing the payroll tax cut.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Axelrod. “So I hope over this break, they have heard from their constituents and they’re going to rethink this.”

The Obama campaign strategist said more Republicans need to stand up to the faction in their party that is affiliated with the Tea Party which he blamed for almost bringing the nation to the brink of default last month. Voters are tired of the political games in Washington, according to Axelrod.

“The only thing to keep us from acting on these things is pure politics,” Axelrod said. “There’s nothing in there that reasonable people can’t agree upon.”

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