Rep. Joe Walsh Refuses to be "Prop" at President's Jobs Speech

By aaroncynic in News on Sep 4, 2011 6:00PM

Illinois Republican Representative Joe Walsh plans to sit out President Obama's speech on the economy next Thursday. ABC 7 Chicago reports Walsh will leave the Capitol a few hours before the President's address to a joint session of Congress and return on Friday. Walsh said in a statement he did not want to be a “prop” for the President and he “would rather come home and talk to people who really know what we need to do about job creation.” The tea party darling added that Obama is “abusing” his position as President by calling a joint session, saying “we reserve that for heads of states from dignitaries around the world and presidents in moments in crisis, and monumental moments.”

Obama plans to unveil a job creation plan in his address on Thursday, which comes on the heels of a report from the Department of Labor that revealed a net total of zero jobs were created in August.

While Walsh might believe that the President's address is unnecessary, his comments come pretty quickly after the GOP criticized Obama's bus tour, where they accused the President of campaigning instead of staying in Washington to focus on job creation. And while the GOP at large might say they're not interested in spending any more money and have called the 2009 stimulus package a failure, Department of Labor statistics show job growth leveled off after the stimulus wound down. One thing appears clear however, no matter what the President unveils on Thursday, like most other policies it will likely be panned by Republicans and cheered by Democrats.