McConnell: The Economy Isn't Funny, Mr. President

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Capitalizing on President Obama's remarks on the economy over the last few weeks -- from speaking about "speed bumps" to "headwinds" and then laughing about those so-called "shovel ready" projects -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY., said that the American people out of work do not find any of this very funny.

"They're getting little comfort from an administration that seems more interested in deflecting the bad news than facing up to it," McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "Amid the onslaught of bad news last week, President Obama's message was that we'd hit some bumps in the road and that people need to be patient in the face of what called economic 'headwinds.' He even joked about the wildly mistaken predictions he and others at the White House made a couple years back about the job-creating potential of the Stimulus."

President Obama told Chrysler plant workers in Toledo, Ohio on June 3 -- the same day it was announced that the nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent -- that "there are always going to be bumps on the road to recovery," and often speaks about the "headwinds"  that has contributed to the slower-than-expected economic recovery.

On Monday during President Obama's conversation with his Jobs Council while one member was explaining how government regulations often kill projects, the president leaned into his microphone and adlibbed "'Shovel ready' was not as shovel-ready as we expected," with a laugh. Members of the council chuckled too.

The Senate Minority leader said that 14 million Americans looking for work right now don't see the humor in the president's quips.

"In fact, I think Americans are deeply troubled by the fact that an administration which claims to be concerned about creating jobs has spent the better part of the past two and a half years pushing policies that seem like they were designed to destroy them. Indeed, I think there's a growing consensus out there that far from improving the economy, the President has made it worse."

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