Carney downplays dispute, says ‘we’ll go on Thursday’

White House press secretary Jay Carney downplayed Wednesday’s disagreement between the administration and House Speaker John Boehner over the date of the president’s upcoming jobs-policy address.

“Our intention was merely for the president to address a joint session of Congress … as soon as possible,” said Carney on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “That’s fine … we’ll go on Thursday.”

{mosads}President Obama had requested to address Congress on his job-growth proposals on Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. EST, a time which conflicted with a major GOP presidential debate.

Boehner responded by asking Obama to address Congress on Thursday, Sept. 8, instead. He made no mention of the scheduling clash with the debate, citing concerns Congress wouldn’t be prepared for the speech given the extensive security precautions needed the event.

The White House accepted the Speaker’s offer and agreed to move the speech to Thursday.

Carney repeated the White House claim that the Speaker’s office had been notified that the president wanted to address lawmakers on Wednesday. Carney said Boehner’s office had been contacted prior to the announcement and “no objection was raised at that time.”

Carney said it was important to the president that he deliver his jobs proposals before Congress. “We wanted to do this in front of Congress, because we want Congress to work with us,” said Carney.

Carney said Americans were “sick and tired of the bickering and the gridlock.”

On a recent bus tour of the Midwest, intended to draw attention to the economy, Obama hammered at lawmakers claiming that their partisanship was preventing Washington from addressing the sluggish economic recovery and high unemployment rate.

Carney added that the president hopes lawmakers “come back from recess with a new sense of urgency having heard from their constituents that they are sick of the political posturing.”

He termed the president’s outlook as “hopeful.”