President Obama tells CBS News: I’m going to call Republicans’ bluff on deficit — I want to see their ideas
The most discussed interview on Sunday morning television is bound to be President Barack Obama’s chat with Harry Smith on “CBS Sunday Morning.” It airs at 9 a.m. on WKMG-Channel 6 and continues on Monday’s edition of “The Early Show” at 7 a.m.
Obama discusses the war in Afghanistan, the resurgence of the U.S. auto industry and the Arizona immigration law, according to CBS News. But Obama’s thoughts about the economy will probably generate the headlines. CBS News released these excerpts this afternoon.
“We’ve put together a small business package that is as bipartisan a set of ideas as you can imagine,” Obama tells Smith. “And these are all what historically have been not just Democratic ideas but Republican ideas. And all we’ve been hearing is no from the other side in the Senate. I am stunned that you can’t get any Republican support for ideas that have been traditionally championed by not just Democrats but Republicans. And it’s a sign of how politics is getting in the way of good decisions that will put our country in a much stronger position.”
Obama adds: “We’re going to have to focus on our fiscal situation. We’ve got a lot of debt. We’ve got a lot of deficit. Now the Republicans have said that this is their No. 1 concern. I’m going to call them on their bluff. I want to see their ideas for how we’re going to deal with these issues. I’m going to have a bunch of ideas.”
On the Arizona issue, Obama says:
“We want to work with Arizona. I understand the frustration of people in Arizona. But what we can’t do is demagogue the issue. And what we can’t do is allow a patchwork of 50 different states, or cities or localities, where anybody who wants to make a name for themselves suddenly says, ‘I’m going to be anti-immigrant and I’m going try to see if I can solve the problem our self.’ This is a national problem.”