WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama
stressed the U.S. economy is “not doing fine,” seeking to
clarify his earlier comments about the private sector and
accusing his Republican rivals of lacking ideas about how to
stoke growth and create jobs.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Obama said that
while corporate profits are strong and companies have been
adding jobs, small businesses are having a tough time getting
financing and other pockets of the economy need more attention.
He repeated his view, expressed earlier on Friday in a press
conference, that budget-pinched state and local governments need
help to avoid teacher and police layoffs, and that Congress
should help buoy struggling homeowners and construction workers
who remain out of work several years after the financial crisis.
“It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine,
that’s the reason I had a press conference,” the Democratic
president said, seated next to Filipino President Benigno
Aquino.
Republicans in Congress had pounced on his Friday morning
comments that the private sector was “doing fine,” and Mitt
Romney, who is running against Obama for the presidency on Nov.
6, called that statement “an extraordinary miscalculation.”
Obama, asked about Romney’s response, accused Republicans of
lacking ideas of how to help the U.S. economy fully recover.
“What steps are they willing to take right now that are
going to make an actual difference? So far, all we have heard
are additional tax cuts for the folks who are doing well,” he
said.
