Obama Blasts GOP on Stimulus

Barack Obama's speech to Democratic lawmakers last night sounded more like a campaign rally than a presidential address as he ditched his teleprompter to lay into the GOP, Politico reports. The president slammed Republican criticism of spending in his stimulus plan. "What do you think a stimulus is?" he asked." It’s spending—that's the whole point!"

We "are not going to get relief by turning back to the same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin," said the president, rejecting Republican calls for tax cuts and reminding the audience of his mandate. “If you’re headed for a cliff, you’ve got to change direction,” he said. “That’s what the American people called for in November, and that’s what we intend to deliver.” (More Obama administration stories.)