This past week, Republicans took a small part of President Obama's recent speech and used it for their own benefit. President Obama was in the middle of a Q&A at the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation Summit and was answering a question regarding the government's role in making America a place were people want to invest more.
President Obama: "But we've been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We've kind of taken for granted -- well, people will want to come here and we aren't out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America".
Republicans took the small text of "been a bit lazy" and used it in campaign ads targeting the President. The facts came out soon after and the GOP look to be walking back their statements. However, in Iowa, a Republican state representative is taking the word "lazy" and using towards a certain group of Americans. State Rep. Josh Byrnes believes that those who can't find a job are just not looking hard enough and extending unemployment benefits just makes them want to stay home long enough.
Josh Byrnes: "I don’t think Americans as a whole are lazy, but we have some pockets of Americans that appear lazy. Ironically, the president has helped enable some of these pockets by doing things like extending unemployment benefits."
What Byrnes and many other Republicans don't understand is that for every four Americans who are looking for a job, only one is available. Does that mean that three out of four Americans are lazy? It's easy to say that when you have a nice congressional job, but in the real world unemployment benefits are the difference between living at home and living in the street.
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