DeMint skeptical about Obama jobs speech

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Tea Party leader Jim DeMint expressed skepticism Sunday that President Barack Obama would offer effective measures to create jobs in his speech this week.

"I'm, frankly, very tired of speeches," DeMint, R-S.C., said on ABC's "This Week."

"I don't want to be disrespectful to the president, but what I want to see is something in writing and that the Congressional Budget Office tells us what it's going to cost so that we can not only read it ourselves, but the American people can read it."

Obama is to deliver a major speech focusing on jobs creation before a joint session of Congress Thursday.

"Speeches, we've found, are not very similar to the actual legislation," DeMint said. "So I'm pretty frustrated with the speech idea. And, frankly, the things that have been leaking out of the White House, none of them are like what I've been hearing from businesses all over the country."

Specifically, he said, he hasn't heard businesses support extending unemployment, cutting payroll taxes or offering tax credits to create jobs.

"What they want is some certainty," he said. "They want the regulators off their back. They want the National Labor Relations Board to stop pushing the union agenda and try to help companies that create jobs. So I don't think the president is going to come out with things that are really going to create jobs. I'm afraid it's just pandering to his base."

The senator said if Obama sends a written proposal, he would "give it every chance."

"But," he added, "I'm not interested in his speech right now."