WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's Democratic allies will pay in November 2010 mid-term elections for the "garbage" legislation they pushed through the US Congress, a top Republican lawmaker warned Thursday.
Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner took aim at Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's remark Wednesday that she was "always in campaign mode" and would sell voters next year on Democratic achievements.
"I hope she does a great job of marketing all the garbage they passed this past year," he said at a year-end press conference, vowing "we're going to continue to be the party of better solutions."
Recent public opinion polls show Republicans -- who were thrashed in the 2006 and 2008 elections -- narrowing the gap with Democrats to a virtual dead heat in a generic ballot ahead of next year's contest.
The US president's party typically loses seats in mid-term elections, and surveys have also found deep worries about the direction the country is headed and about the bleak economic picture, including historically high joblessness.
"Right now we've got double-digit unemployment, we're got red ink as far as the eye can see, permanent bailouts, and no long-term plan to put any of this back in shape," said Boehner.
With Democrats divided on Afghanistan, the Republican leader said he supported Obama's decision to send 30,000 more US troops there and that he would help pass an emergency spending bill to fund the "surge."
"I'll do everything I can to make sure that they have what they need," he said.
