Obama campaign memo warns Congress on jobs bill votes

President Obama’s top campaign adviser said in a memo Monday — the eve of the Senate vote on Obama’s jobs bill — that Congress will continue to suffer politically if the bill is defeated.

David Axelrod said in a campaign memo that a majority of Americans believe another recession is coming or already here, and voters will punish Congress for failing to stop it.

{mosads}”So as members of Congress take up the American Jobs Act this week they need to understand that their failure to focus on what matters most to Americans is why disapproval for Congress is at a historic high – 80 percent,” Axelrod wrote, citing a CBS/New York Times poll.

Using a slew of similar poll numbers favoring Obama, Axelrod wrote that the $447 billion jobs act is attracting more support as Obama has traveled around the country selling it.

“The more people know about the American Jobs Act; the more they hear the president talking about it; the more they want Congress to pass the plan,” Axelrod wrote.

While most of the memo trains its warnings and criticisms on Republicans, there is no mention of the Democratic senators who are likely to join the GOP minority in the Senate in voting against the plan.

“The fundamental question in advance of tomorrow’s vote is this: will Republicans put country ahead of party and pass this bill?” Axelrod wrote. “Or will they oppose a bill that would create jobs now and that the American people support while standing by their proposals to extend tax cuts for large corporations, millionaires and billionaires while allowing Wall Street to write its own rules?”

The email contains indirect warnings about a coming double-dip recession should Congress fail to act, essentially putting the president all-in on a bill that at least in its current state appears headed for defeat as he attempts to put the onus for preventing a recession on Congress.

The memo, which does not mention any lawmakers or presidential candidates by name, said that Americans “don’t want to see the typical gamesmanship and delay because a majority (53 percent) believe that America is in or headed into another recession.”

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“The stakes couldn’t be higher as leading economists from across the political spectrum warn that immediate action is needed to create jobs and avoid another downturn in the economy,” the memo reads. “And the American Jobs Act is the only plan that does what needs to be done: provide immediate relief to families and create jobs now.”

The memo continues: “Yet Republican leaders – from Congress to the presidential campaign trail – have been steadfast in their opposition without providing an alternative that would create jobs now,” Axelrod wrote.