Boehner: Obama siding with ‘extremists and anarchists’ on Keystone

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday accused President Obama of pandering to the radical left with his threat to veto the Keystone XL bill.

{mosads}“Instead of listening to people, the president is standing with a bunch of left-fringe extremists and anarchists,” Boehner told reporters Wednesday.

“The president needs to listen to the American people and say, ‘Yes, let’s build a Keystone pipeline!’ ”

The House is scheduled to vote today on a Senate bill that would approve construction of the pipeline, overruling the administration’s review of the project.

GOP lawmakers are portraying the expected Keystone veto as an example of Obama obstructing a bipartisan, job-creating proposal with wide public support.

“We build pipelines all around America every single day,” Boehner said.

“Keystone has been reviewed and approved numerous times. Even the president’s own State Department will say that it creates 42,000 new jobs.”

The figure from the State Department’s review of Keystone refers to the total jobs the pipeline would support, including temporary construction positions. The project would create 35 permanent positions.

Earlier Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pleaded with Obama on the Senate floor to reconsider his veto threat and “sign this jobs and infrastructure bill.”

He similarly accused Obama of listening to a select group instead of the overall voice of the American people.

“Powerful special interests may be demanding that the president veto Keystone jobs, but we hope he won’t,” McConnell said.

— Scott Wong contributed to this story.