WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) sparred with President Barack Obama on Thursday over the president's claim that Republicans have yet to put forward a jobs plan that would have any immediate effects.
Boehner "respectfully challenged" Obama on the issue during a 10-minute phone call, according to Boehner's office. Obama called Boehner to thank him for helping to pass trade deals in the House that day, and once that conversation was done, Boehner switched gears and brought up remarks the president made earlier in the day about "not having yet seen" a GOP plan for job creation.
"The last time I was here at a press conference I asked you guys to show us the Republican jobs plan that independent economists would indicate would actually put people back to work. I haven’t yet seen it," Obama told reporters during a press conference earlier Thursday with South Korean president Lee Myung-bak. "And so, eventually, I’m hoping that they actually put forward some proposals that indicate that they feel that sense of urgency about needing to put people back to work right now."
Obama's comments didn't sit well with the speaker.
“I want to make sure you have all the facts,” Boehner told Obama in their call, according to the speaker's office. Boehner went on to remind the president that House Republicans put forward their jobs plan back in May, the "Plan for America's Job Creators," and said he and other GOP leaders have spoken with the president and his staff about it on numerous occasions.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed the phone call took place but declined to comment on the specifics of the conversation. He also clarified Obama's charge against Republicans: not that they haven't put forward any jobs plan, but that they haven't put forward a plan that would create jobs in the near-term.
"As independent economists have said, the American Jobs Act is the only plan that will create jobs and help the economy now," Earnest said of Obama's jobs bill in a statement.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer hammered in that same distinction later Thursday.
"It is a simple fact that economists that have looked at the House GOP Jobs Plan say it does not create jobs or help the economy now," Pfeiffer wrote on Twitter.
