President Barack Obama is asking Americans to be patient with his efforts to speed economic recovery. The president again has attacked Republicans for voting down his jobs legislation.
He has again gone on the road to campaign for support for his economic initiatives, speaking at a high school in the northeastern city of Manchester, New Hampshire.
The nation’s unemployment rate has hovered around nine percent for several months, and Mr. Obama’s public approval ratings have suffered.
Many political experts think the economy will be the main issue that determines whether the president wins re-election a year from now.
Mr. Obama told the crowd in Manchester his efforts on the economy will succeed, but not immediately.
“It is going to take time to rebuild an economy that restores security for the middle class, renews opportunity for folks trying to reach the middle class. It is going to take time to rebuild an economy that is not based on outsourcing or tax loopholes or risky financial deals, but one that is built to last,” he said.
The president’s appeal came one day after a special congressional panel, called the “supercommittee,” failed to agree on ways to cut the government’s budget deficit.
Opposition Republicans and some political experts criticized Mr. Obama for not becoming more involved in pushing the supercommittee toward an agreement.
But on Tuesday, the president had criticism for minority Republicans in the Senate, angrily blasting them for defeating major parts of his $447-billion jobs legislation.
“They refused to even debate it. 100 percent of Republicans opposed it, even though almost two-thirds of Americans supported the ideas in this bill - Democrats, Republicans and independents alike. Not one Republican in Washington was willing to say it was the right thing to do, not one,” Obama said.
Mr. Obama called on Congress to vote next week to extend tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of December. The top Republican in Congress, House Speaker John Boehner, said his party is still willing to discuss supporting the bill.
The small state of New Hampshire will be the scene of one of the first Republican presidential voting contests of the 2012 campaign, on January 10.
Mr. Obama is expected to be unopposed for his party’s nomination. But New Hampshire may be one of the so-called “battleground states” that will be key to winning the national election.