WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- President Barack Obama heaped criticism on Republicans Thursday while campaigning for Missouri Senate hopeful Robin Carnahan, saying they drove the economy into a ditch and expect to get the keys back.
Obama, in colorful rhetoric, said he inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit when he took office and is baffled that Republicans bemoan his administration's spending.
"It is a little odd getting lectures on sobriety from folks that spent like drunken sailors for the last decade," said Obama.
He also criticized Carnahan's opponent, Rep. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.), saying Blunt has worked to give tax breaks to billionaires and oil companies and attempted to eliminate oversight of Wall Street.
Carnahan, currently Missouri's secretary of state, is running for an open Senate seat against Blunt.
Obama was in Missouri to promote his administration's recovery efforts, and to stump for Carnahan before traveling to Las Vegas to campaign for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.).
Some of Obama's harshest remarks for Republicans came as he likened them to irresponsible teenagers. "These folks drove the economy into a ditch," Obama began. "And they want the keys back and you gotta say the same thing to them you say to a teenager, 'you can't have the keys back because you don't know how to drive'."
He also latched on to recent political gaffes by several Republican lawmakers. He criticized House Republican Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) for likening the recession to an ant and said he was shocked Rep. Joe Barton (R., Texas) apologized to BP Plc (BP, BP.LN) for White House efforts to get the company to set aside $20 billion to compensate victims of the Gulf oil disaster.
Boehner had said financial legislation Obama supports is like "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon." He has since said he wasn't trying to minimize the crisis, but suggesting the administration's response to the crisis was too broad. Barton has apologized for his comments, which were given during a Congressional hearing into BP's response to the oil catastrophe.
Obama also said Republican's don't represent ordinary Americans. "That's not their orientation," he said.
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones Newswires
Graham: Most People Would Consider Kagan Qualified To Be Supreme Court JusticeFreddie Mac seeks additional $10.6 billion in aid
