With the critical midterm election less than eight weeks
away, President Obama sharpened his rhetoric on Wednesday, excoriating
Republican policies as “bad for America.”

Obama went after House Republican Leader John Boehner
repeatedly in his address from Cleveland, a location chosen because of
Boehner’s economic speech from that city two weeks ago.

{mosads}In some of his sharpest campaign language this year, Obama
accused Boehner (Ohio) and congressional Republicans of promoting fear instead
of constructive economic policies, and said the Republican leader had laid out
no new ideas or policies in his own address.

“There was just the same philosophy we already tried for the
last decade — the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: cut
more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations,” said Obama,
who named Boehner eight times in the speech.

The campaign-style speech from Obama coincided with an aggressive
push by the Democratic National Committee, which sent supporters an e-mail
Wednesday titled “We can beat them.” The push comes amid dire polls suggesting
Democrats could lose the House and Senate this fall.

In his speech, Obama explicitly called for the phasing out
of tax cuts on the wealthiest taxpayers, despite opposition from members of his
own party and his own former budget director. 

Obama said taxes should be raised on individuals making at
least $200,000 and families making $250,000, and accused Boehner and
Republicans of favoring tax cuts for millionaires

“Make no mistake:  he and his party believe we should
also give a permanent tax cut to the wealthiest two percent of Americans,”
Obama said.

Obama also laid out his latest ideas for stimulating a
sluggish economy that threatens to take down Democratic majorities in the House
and Senate this fall.

The president formally called for a permanent extension of
the research-and-development tax credit for businesses, and for businesses to
be able to write off their capital investments in 2011.

“This will help small businesses upgrade their plants and
equipment, and will encourage large corporations to get off the sidelines and
start putting their profits to work in places like Cleveland and Toledo and
Dayton,” he said of the tax provisions.

He said he would pay for those provisions by eliminating tax
breaks that he said encourage businesses to ship workers overseas, and used GOP
opposition to ending those tax breaks to tear into Boehner again.

“To most of you, this is just common sense. But not to
Mr. Boehner and his allies,” he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Boehner announced that House
Republicans want to pursue a two-point plan to help the economy, replete with
reducing spending to levels before Obama took office and extending the Bush tax
cuts.

“If the president is serious about finally focusing on jobs,
a good start would be taking the advice of his recently departed budget
director and freezing all tax rates, coupled with cutting federal spending to
where it was before all the bailouts, government takeovers and ‘stimulus’
spending sprees,” Boehner said after Obama’s speech.

Obama accused Republicans who have opposed his agenda of
preying on voter anxiety over the economy to score political points.

“People are frustrated and angry and anxious about the
future,” Obama said. “I understand that.  I also understand that in a
political campaign, the easiest thing for the other side to do is ride this
fear and anger all the way to Election Day.”

Obama’s rhetoric harkened back to the campaign message that
got him elected.

“A lot has changed since I came here in those final days of
the last election, but what hasn’t is the choice facing this country,” Obama
said. “It’s still fear versus hope; the past versus the future. It’s still a
choice between sliding backward and moving forward. That’s what this election is
about. That’s the choice you’ll face in November.”

Obama acknowledged that even though the economy has
stabilized, the recovery has been “painfully slow.”

“Millions of jobs were lost before our policies even had a
chance to take effect — a hole so deep that even though we’ve added jobs again,
millions of Americans remain unemployed,” Obama said.

The president criticized Republicans, who “have said no to
just about every policy I’ve proposed since taking office,” and he questioned
why they are opposing small-business tax cuts and loans.

Obama stood by the packages he has passed since taking
office and criticized Republican opposition to another of his proposals
unveiled this week, to spend an additional $50 billion on infrastructure
projects.

“Despite the fact that this has traditionally been an issue
with bipartisan support, Mr. Boehner has so far said no to
infrastructure.  That’s bad for America – and that too is what this
election is about,” Obama said.  

The push for more infrastructure spending, however, also has
run into opposition from some Democrats. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Obama’s
hand-picked candidate for that seat, said in a statement Wednesday that he
would not support more spending in a stimulus package.

A number of centrist Democrats also have voiced support for
extending all of the tax cuts.

Obama, however, said it was Republicans who were holding up
continued tax cuts for most taxpayers.

“So let me be clear to Mr. Boehner and everyone else: We
should not hold middle-class tax cuts hostage any longer,” Obama said. “We
are ready, this week, to give tax cuts to every American making $250,000 or
less. For any income over this amount, the tax rates would go back to what they
were under President Clinton. This isn’t to punish folks who are better off —
it’s because we can’t afford the $700 billion price tag.”

Obama touched on his and first lady Michelle Obama’s
personal family histories, illustrating what he says was a culture of
responsibility that rewarded hard work and not greed.

Obama lamented the absence of bipartisanship in Washington
following the economic collapse of 2008, but put all the blame on Republicans.

“My hope was that the crisis would cause everyone, Democrats
and Republicans, to pull together and tackle our problems in a practical way,”
Obama said. “But as we all know, things didn’t work out that way.”

This story was posted at 2:27 p.m. and updated at 4:45 p.m.