Obama Pushes Republican Senators To Look Past Midterm Elections

President Barack Obama pushed Senators to ignore the fact that midterm elections are right around the corner and seize the opportunity to lend a helping hand to the backbone of America - the middle class.

The president told reporters Monday that the time has come “to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics.”

Obama called out Republican Senators saying many of them supported extending emergency relief in the past, but have now decided to withdraw that support despite a longstanding tradition of providing the unemployed relief during Republican and Democratic presidencies. 

“A majority of Senators have tried, not once, not twice but three times to extend emergency relief on a temporary basis,” Obama said. “Each time a partisan minority in the Senate has used parliamentary maneuvers to block a vote denying millions of people out of work much needed relief.”

The president urged Senators to stop focusing on the upcoming midterm elections and to start thinking of middle-class Americans. 

“It’s time to do what’s right,” Obama said. “Not for the next election, but for the middle class.”

Extended unemployment benefits and small business tax cuts are only pieces of a larger package the Senate will vote on Tuesday. The president reminded members of the media that extended unemployment benefits is an issue that should be met with bipartisan support, even if midterm elections are just a mere four months away.

“Times are hard right now… I know it’s getting close to an election but there are times where you put elections aside, this is one of those times,” Obama said.