House Speaker John Boehner charged on Tuesday that Americans are "tired of asking the question, 'Where are the jobs?'"
"On Friday, we got another disappointing jobs report," Boehner said in
his weekly news conference at the Capitol. "The American people are tired of being disappointed. They’re tired of settling for this new normal under the Obama economy."
The Labor Department
reported Friday that the nation's unemployment rate stood at 6.6 percent in January, down from 6.7 percent in December. The economy created only 113,000 jobs in January, though higher than the 75,000 created the previous month.
"That’s why we need to be working together with the president to expand our economy, expand the opportunities for our fellow citizens," the Ohio Republican said. "It’s why we sent the president a letter two weeks ago outlining areas that he talked about in his State of the Union address — bills that we’ve already passed — that are sitting over in the Senate.
"Places where we can work together, whether it’s skills training, whether it’s kids research," he added. "There are places where we can work together.
"We’ve received no response from the president. Nothing."
Looking ahead to the upcoming talks on raising the nation's borrowing authority, Boehner said, "If the president won’t work with us on these simple issues, who would ever expect that he would be able to work with us on the more complex issues that we face?"