House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) sharply criticized President Obama's upcoming jobs tour and touting of a stronger economy in a Tuesday interview on Bloomberg, saying it was "barely" improving and Obama's own policies were standing in the way of stronger growth.
Boehner said small business owners are "scared to death" by an outdated tax system and all the rules and regulations defining this administration, notably Obamacare.
JOHN BOEHNER: The president wants to go out there and crow about the fact that the economy is growing. Barely! This is not the kind of economic growth that's going to help our country long term. You've got wages that are stagnant. You have few opportunities, if you will, of walking up the economic ladder. What we need are real plans that will get our economy going again. The president's policy--
PETER COOK: You know the answer from Democrats, sir, is that more austerity right now, more spending cuts up front, that's what Europe's going through, and you're got a lot of European countries right now aren't seeing very good growth themselves.
BOEHNER: Listen, we are not Europe, all right? We're talking about our long-term spending problem. Really not going to affect anything in the near future. But when you look at what's going on out there, the president's going out there on this jobs tour and going to go out there and tout the fact that the economy's growing. But it's barely growing. You know, Republicans have a plan to get our economy going again, get wages growing again and job opportunities growing again, things like fixing our long-term spending problem, fixing our broken tax code to make America more competitive. How about expanding American energy production and the Keystone Pipeline? There are a lot of things, the red tape ... in many cases it's the president's own policies that are getting in the way of growing our economy.
COOK: The president says --
BOEHNER: I used to run a small business. I know exactly what small businesses are thinking. They're looking at Obamacare, they're looking at all these rules and regulations, an outdated tax system, and they're scared to death. And when they're scared to death, you know what they do? They sit on their wallet and wait for the picture to clear.
Obamacare has come under fire from its own co-author, Sen. Max Baucus (D., N.D.), as a train wreck waiting to happen when implemented, and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) agreed. Obamacare has also forced employees into part-time status by companies avoiding fines for not covering full-time workers, as mandated.