President Obama issued a taunt to Republicans during a speech Tuesday, saying "so sue me" for taking executive actions on various political issues without Congress.
"As long as they insist on taking no action whatsoever that will help anybody, I'm going to keep on taking actions on my own that can help the middle class, like the actions I've already taken to speed up construction projects and attract new manufacturing jobs and lift workers' wages and help students pay off their student loans," Obama said in Washington. "Middle-class families can't wait for Republicans in Congress to do stuff. So sue me. As long as they're doing nothing, I'm not going to apologize for trying to do something."
Obama added he felt Republicans were "patriots" but they had antiquated views on the economy.
Full exchange:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: This obstruction keeps the system rigged for those who are doing fine, at the very top. It prevents us from helping more middle-class families. And as long as they insist on taking no action whatsoever that will help anybody, I'm going to keep on taking actions on my own that can help the middle class, like the actions I've already taken to speed up construction projects and attract new manufacturing jobs and lift workers' wages and help students pay off their student loans.
And they criticize me for this. Boehner sued me for this. And I told him I'd rather do things with you; pass some laws; make sure the Highway Trust Fund is funded so we don't lay off hundreds of thousands of workers. It's not that hard.
Middle-class families can't wait for Republicans in Congress to do stuff. So sue me. As long as they're doing nothing, I'm not going to apologize for trying to do something.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's right.
OBAMA: And look. You know, I just want to be clear. Republicans in Congress, they're patriots, they love their country, they love their families; they just have a flawed theory of the economy that they can't seem to get past. They believe that all we should be doing is giving more tax breaks to those at the top, eliminating regulations that stop big banks or polluters from doing what they want, cut the safety net from people trying to work their way into the middle class, and then somehow the economy's going to get stronger and jobs and prosperity trickle down to everybody.
That's their worldview.