The problem from quoting scripture is that most people get it wrong. The Bible never had the verse, "The Lord will help those who help themselves." Actually, a better phrase would be, "The Lord will help those who help themselves by trusting and obeying Him." Not to digress, but the president is using God's permission to invoke the jobs bill as the will of the Lord. This president is on dangerous ground if he wants to impose religion into politics.
Besides, using Ronald Reagan as his mantra to convince Republicans will not work. The problem is that Obama spent close to $1 trillion dollars in spending to stimulate the economy. The president lied. He promised unemployment will not go above 8%. Currently, it is 9.1%. Honestly, if a $1 trillion stimulus bill didn't create any jobs, I don't think asking for $500 billion or $60 billion will do anything to put people back to work. The money had been squandered paying off donors, who put Obama in the White House.
(Yahoo) President Barack Obama Wednesday said even God wanted to put Americans back to work, invoking divine blessing for his joust with Republicans over measures designed to slice into high unemployment.
Obama also taunted his foes with historic arguments in favor of repairing vital infrastructure once made by conservative icon Ronald Reagan, as he stumped for a $60 billion infrastructure bill being taken up by the Senate.
The president rebuked the House of Representatives for passing a bill reaffirming the US motto "In God We Trust" rather than getting to work on his stalled $447 billion jobs program.
"That's not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work," the president said.
Obama's spokesman Jay Carney denied that Obama had perhaps gone too far by dragging the Almighty into a fierce political spat.
"I believe that the phrase from the Bible is 'the Lord helps those who help themselves,'" Carney said.
"I think the point the president is making is that, you know, we have it within our capacity to do the things to help the American people."
The White House was later forced to clarify however that the phrase Carney used, though often mistaken for scripture, was not in fact biblical.
"There's no good reason to oppose this bill, not one. And members of Congress who do, who vote no, are going to have to explain why to their constituencies," Obama said.
"The American people are with me with this," Obama said, intensifying his campaign to blame Republicans for inaction on bills he says could put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work and cut 9.1 percent unemployment.
Obama also resorted to one of his favorite rhetorical tricks by quoting Reagan, who was president from 1981 to 1989, and is a hero to modern day conservatives, to decry Republican policies.
Reagan, Obama said, argued that it was "common sense" to repair bridges and highways before they needed to be rebuilt in future years at many times the cost.
"Since when do we have Republicans voting against Ronald Reagan's ideas?"
But it is unclear if the bill will garner the 60 Senate votes needed to overcome blocking tactics by Republicans who accuse Obama of trying to double down on failed stimulus spending.
In recent votes, several Democratic senators from conservative states where the president's economic policies are unpopular, have also declined to back portions of the jobs plans.
Meanwhile, a blame game is in full swing between Republicans and Democrats over the failure to pass jobs measures.
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