Biden to House Republicans: ‘It’s time to stop fooling around’ on funding government
President Biden criticized the House GOP on Friday for endangering the country with a new government shutdown, days after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was unseated after bringing a stopgap funding measure to the floor that was backed by Democrats.
“House Republican shouldn’t put us back into crisis mode again. We only have 40 days for Congress to get back to work — House Republicans are on recess now — to fund the government, avoid a shutdown and protect the tremendous gains American workers have made over the past two-and-a-half years,” Biden said.
The stopgap measure runs through Nov. 17. Ninety House Republicans voted against it.
McCarthy was unseated in a vote Tuesday, when eight Republicans voted with the chamber's Democrats against him. Republicans who have backed McCarthy have criticized Democrats for not providing him with help; Democrats have said it's not their job to help the GOP on such a vote, since Democrats prefer their own leader as Speaker.
Biden has sought to take advantage of the situation, contrasting his work with the chaos of the GOP House.
“It’s time to stop fooling around. House Republicans, it’s time to start doing your job, continuing our progress growing the economy, investing in America, investing in the American people,” he said Friday. “Let’s get to work for the American people, they’re waiting and they’re watching.”
Biden went to the press to tout a September jobs report released Friday morning that showed the U.S. added 336,000 jobs last month. The Labor Department data also said that the unemployment rate stayed even at 3.8 percent.
The president highlighted Friday that 13.9 million new jobs have been added since when he took office, and that the U.S. has seen 20 consecutive months of an unemployment rate below 4 percent, arguing that his economic plan, dubbed Bidenomics, is working.
When questioned about why Americans aren’t feeling good about the economy, the president grew defensive and bashed reporters for being “not the happiest people in the world what you report.”
“I think the people … who got jobs feel better about the economy,” he added. “I think the American people are smart as hell — I think they know they are better off financially than they were before. It’s a fact.”