The Hill News

President Obama ridiculed on Monday the new set of policy prescriptions unveiled last week by House Republican lawmakers.

The president jabbed at the GOP's "Pledge to America" as a retread of old, failed Republican policies, echoing other Democratic attacks on the new Republican governing agenda that was finally released last Thursday.

"What I'm seeing out of the Republican leadership out of the last several years has been a set of policies that are just irresponsible,"  Obama said on NBC's "Today" show. "We saw in their Pledge to America a similar set of irresponsible policies."

The president's tough rhetoric is the second time he's gone after the new GOP agenda in 24 hours. He slammed the new agenda as a giveaway to the wealthy and corporate interests in his weekly address on Saturday. 

“Republicans are listening to the American people, who are asking, ‘where are the jobs?’" said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). "It’s a shame the President seems more interested in partisan attacks than working together to stop the tax hike, cut spending, and help create jobs.”

The Pledge amounts to a "sharp difference" between Republicans and the administration, Obama asserted.

"I think that you've heard me speak around the country over the last several months," he said. "I've got a very sharp difference with the Republicans on a lot of issues."

The president will continue to underscore that point during the five weeks between now and Election Day, a period in which Democrats will have to work tirelessly to preserve a majority in the House, and hold onto as man! y seats as possible in the Senate.

Obama noted that! he shou ld distinguish his attacks between Republican leaders in Congress and rank-and-file GOP voters, arguing that Republicans and dissatisfied independents can still work with Democrats to craft good policy going forward. 

Updated 9:13 a.m.