(CNN) – In their weekly addresses, President Obama and California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy (giving the GOP's weekly address) offered wildly varying messages, each insisting that the opposing party has turned a deaf ear to the American people and that their party's plan to revive the economy is fresh and new.
Obama used his address to continue his assault on congressional Republicans, who earlier this week unveiled an economic agenda and voted against small business legislation that the White House has been pushing for months.
Watch President Obama's address here.
Watch the GOP address here.
Washington (CNN) - A top House Republican boasted Thursday that Republicans are already positioned to take control of the House, and argued the Democrats' political position will only worsen as Election Day approaches.
California Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the top recruiter of GOP candidates and chief Republican Whip in the House, told reporters on a conference there are "more than enough seats" to win, and added, "I think the map is getting bigger by the day."
McCarthy, who has traveled to more than 50 districts so far during the August recess, said the economy and the President's poll numbers are dragging down Democrats' chances of keeping their majority. On President Obama, the GOP leader predicted, "I think his approval rating will be even lower" by November and said the overall size of the political playing field will expand as a result.
(CNN) – With midterm elections less than three months away, outspoken members of both political parties tried Sunday to blame the nation's economic woes on the fiscal policies supported by their rivals.
In an interview on CNN's State of the Union, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, accused congressional Republicans of "gambling" with Americans' retirement savings.
"If you privatize Social Security … the end result will be that that money is not there," Van Hollen told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley. "There is not a stable source of retirement money because we'll be literally gambling it on Wall Street. And that has been a long-held position of our Republican colleagues."
Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California dismissed the accusations as "scare tactics" designed to distract Americans from the 9.5 percent unemployment rate.
"Republicans want to secure it [Social Security] and make it there for the future," McCarthy said. "One of the reasons why it's actually losing money right now is because there are so fewer jobs out there and fewer people are paying in."
Watch the debate, after the jump:
FULL POST
Washington (CNN) – With less than four months until voters go to the polls in this year's midterm elections, one of two House Republicans charged with developing a positive GOP agenda sounded a warning Tuesday about what he sees as the temptations inherent in the liberal agenda.
Invoking the Old Testament story of Esau and Jacob, Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Illinois, said the American public should not be taken in at a time of need and vulnerability by what "the political left" is offering.
In the Bible tale, Esau, as the older of Isaac's two sons, was in line to receive an inheritance from his father. But, in a moment of hunger after returning home from a trip, Esau gave up that birthright to his younger brother Jacob in exchange for a pot of stew.
"Today the political left is coaxing the American people and the American people are hungry," Roskam said at the Heritage Foundation's weekly gathering of conservative bloggers. "They're uncertain. They're in ground that they have never been on before. They're seeing an economy that is one of the scariest things that they've seen in a long time. They see the United States and our role in the world being challenged here, there, and elsewhere. And they are uncertain."
Roskam likened the public in the current economic and political environment to Esau in the Old Testament.
"And the political left is saying 'Just give us your birthright. Just trade it in and we'll give you stability.' Well, Heaven help us if we make that deal. Heaven help us if we give a birthright of freedom and opportunity and entrepreneurship and national strength and goodness. If we just squander that – for what? For people – entrusting it to people who can't pass a budget. Are you kidding me? That's a raw deal," the Illinois Republican said, making a reference to the fact that Democrats in Congress have missed the traditional deadline for producing the next federal budget.
Roskam, a House Republican deputy whip, was joined at the Heritage Foundation event by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, the chief deputy whip of the House Republican Conference.
FULL POST
Washington (CNN) – Three leading House Republicans will release a new book entitled "Young Guns" in September, publisher Simon & Schuster announced Monday.
The book is jointly written by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Virginia; Republican Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-California; and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, according to Brad Dayspring, who is acting as part-time publicist and spokesman for all three lawmakers as they release their new book.
In a phone interview with CNN, Dayspring described "Young Guns" as "a complimentary effort to many that are already under way to promote conservative candidates, layout a conservative Republican agenda and describe a positive narrative for the 2010 election."
FULL POST
Washington (CNN) - One day after the Obama administration touted favorable new employment figures, Republicans hit the administration for pushing "job-killing legislation that would guarantee permanent bailouts for Wall Street."
California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a member of the House Financial Services Committee chosen to deliver the weekly GOP address, used the platform to call Democrat's Wall Street reform bill a "job killer."
"President Obama wants Congress to pass job-killing legislation that would guarantee permanent bailouts for Wall Street," McCarthy said. "Under his plan, unelected Washington bureaucrats would be granted virtually unlimited power to pick winners and losers – and hardworking American taxpayers would pick up the tab for the reckless decisions made by irresponsible bankers."
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