Obama says Republicans have forgotten middle-class struggles

Reviving 2012 campaign themes and a partisan edge, President Obama argued that he has not forgotten what it’s like to be in the middle class, unlike Republicans in Congress.

“They just don’t know what most folks are going through,” Obama told a group of supporters in a speech on the economy Friday.

Obama’s remarks capped a two-day trip to the Twin Cities aimed at highlighting his connections to ordinary people.

Obama shared what the White House billed as a “day in the life” with a young mother who had written to the president about her family’s economic trouble, although he spent less that an hour with Rebekeh Erler.

Still, Obama said her story inspired him and reminded him of why he got into politics -- and why his economic proposals are better than the ideas Republicans advocate.

Obama said Republicans “don’t do anything, except block me.”

“I want to work with you,” he said, laughing. “But you gotta give me something. ... Anything!

His broadside came only days days after Republicans have accused Obama of improperly taking executive action in policy areas in which Congress has failed to act.

Referring to GOP plans to file a lawsuit asserting that Obama stepped outside his constitutional authority, he joked that he might have once challenged Republicans to “just sue me.”

“I didn’t think they were going to take it literally,” he said.

Obama spoke on the banks of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, with sailboats behind him, a well-off neighborhood that contrasted with his theme that, despite the improving economy, the middle class is still in need of a boost.

“We’ve made some enormous strides but that’s not the end of the story. We have more work to do,” he said.

Obama started his day at a job-training center, where he chatted briefly with young mothers taking a training course in customer service. He compared them to his mom, who was 18 when he was born.