FLETCHER, N.C. — President Obama kicked off a three-day bus tour in support of his American Jobs Act at the Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina Monday, saying the Republicans’ jobs plan will lead to “dirtier air, dirtier water” and “less people with health insurance.”
The Senate rejected Obama’s $447 billion jobs package last week, but Obama vowed to continue pushing Congress to pass the legislation in “bite-sized pieces” — focusing initially on funding proposals for teachers, police officers and fire fighters.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Monday that the Senate will vote this week on a $35 billion provision for states to fund jobs for teachers and first responders.
While Obama’s bus tour is billed as a White House event rather than a campaign swing, his speech was a clear shot at the Republican agenda as the 2012 campaign season continues to intensify. The president delivered his attacks on the Republican jobs proposal energetically, after running down the steps of Air Force One and then jogging to the podium from the runway tarmac.
He said Republicans want to “gut regulations, they want to let Wall Street do whatever it wants, they want to drill more, and they want to repeal health care reform.”
He also accused the GOP of wanting “to go back to the good old days before the financial crisis when Wall Street was writing its own rules.”
In voting against his bill, Obama said Senate Republicans “said no to putting teachers and construction workers back on the job.”
“They said no to helping veterans find jobs,” he added. “Essentially they said no to you.”
“There doesn’t seem to be much listening going on in Washington these days,” Obama said. “People don’t seem to be paying much attention to the folks who sent them there in the first place. And that’s a shame.”
North Carolina and Virginia are among the states expected to be a major focus for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign as swing states Ohio and Florida tilt increasingly towards the Republican Party. While North Carolina and Virginia have historically voted Republican, Obama captured both states in 2008 with the support of the states’ minority voters and growing numbers of white professionals.
In his speech, Obama noted that his jobs bill could benefit the Asheville airport where Air Force One had just landed, saying its runway needs to be widened and its taxiway needs to be moved.
“Planes sometimes get too close together,” he explained. “So we could be doing some work right here at the Asheville airport.”