Obama says Congress must pass job programme

President Barack Obama said Monday that congressional Republicans must put their country ahead of their party and vote to create new jobs as he used a boisterous rally to aim a partisan barb at the opposition.In a preview of the jobs speech he will deliver on Thursday to Congress, Obama said there are numerous roads and bridges that need rebuilding in the US, and over 1 million unemployed construction workers who are available to build them. He was speaking on Labor Day, the holiday that celebrates the American worker and marks the traditional end of summer.Obama said that with widespread suffering, the time for Washington games is over and lawmakers must move quickly to create jobs.But were not going wait for them, he said at an annual event sponsored by the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO. Were going to see if weve got some straight shooters in Congress. Were going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party.Show us what youve got, Obama said. Throughout the speech, the union crowd kept chanting four more years.Obamas remarks came as he has been under heavy criticism from the Republicans for presiding over a persistently weak economy and high unemployment. Last Fridays dismal jobs report showed that employers added no jobs in August, the first time since 1945 that the government reported a net job change of zero. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, held steady at 9.1 percent.The disappointing report sparked new fears of a second recession and injected fresh urgency into efforts by Obama to help get millions of unemployed people back into the labor market and help improve his re-election chances.Polls show the economy and jobs are the publics top concerns. Public approval of Obamas handling of the economy hit a new low of 26 percent in a recent Gallup survey.The unemployment report also gave Obamas Republican critics, including those who want to challenge him in next years presidential election, fresh ammunition to pound him with.