Boehner accuses Obama of job destruction

CLEVELAND, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- President Obama's tax policy and other measures are hurting small business and fueling unemployment, U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner said Tuesday.

In a speech to the City Club in Cleveland, Boehner, R-Ohio, called on the president to fire Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers, and to adopt new strategies he said would speed job creation. These include giving up proposed tax increases and abandoning proposals like a "cap and trade" system to reduce greenhouse gases and "card check," a proposal backed by the union movement.

Boehner also urged Obama to allow Republicans in Congress to appeal a requirement in the health-care reform bill that businesses report all payments of more than $600 to vendors. He said the most recent stimulus bill creates government jobs but ignores the needs of business.

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, commenting on Boehner's speech, said the recession began while President George W. Bush was president.

"Now we're seeing positive job growth," Burton said. "Now we're seeing the economy growing. And of course the President isn't satisfied with the pace at which it's moving, but he does think that we need to keep moving with the policies that helped to get us out of the crisis and not go back to the ones that got us into it."