Obama Tells GOP: If You Want to Change My Policies, “Win an Election”

ZING.

Obama’s speech — shortly after the government reopened — included:

“To all my friends in Congress, understand that how business is done in this town has to change.  You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election.  But don't break it.”

And:

“We hear some members who pushed for the shutdown say they were doing it to save the American economy.  But nothing has done more to undermine our economy in the past three years than the kind of tactics that create these manufactured crises.”

The 16-day shutdown has cost the economy $24 billion.  And that $24 billion figure doesn’t even include loans that the Small Business Administration didn’t make, permits that got held up, and billions of dollars in lost tax revenue.  And if the U.S. government gets a downgrade on its credit, God only knows how much more it’ll cost.

And just for an idea of what $24 billion will buy:

The net cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP):  $24 billion.

The Department of Agriculture’s proposed budget:  $22.6 billion.

NASA’s budget:  $16.6 billion.

The combined cost of Head Start, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program:  $25.2 billion.

Way to go, Teajobs.