Obama keeps heat on Republican critics

US President Barack Obama used a campaign-style speech in the American heartland today to blast his Republican opponents as feckless obstructionists in Congress, saying Washington's current gridlock "drives me nuts."
Republicans have become so obsessed with blocking the Democratic president's every move that he has been forced to use his executive authority to advance priorities like pay fairness, Obama said, dismissing as a stunt a threatened Republican lawsuit against him.
The White House and Republican congressional leaders, notably House Speaker John Boehner, have sparred repeatedly over Obama's use of executive orders, with Boehner warning this week that Americans "didn't elect a monarch or king."

The top Republican in Congress had announced on Wednesday that he would file a lawsuit against Obama because "the president has not faithfully executed the laws" of the nation.
An unapologetic Obama ridiculed the approach, calling it a "stunt" in an interview with ABC News.
Later, he told some 3,500 supporters in Minneapolis that in 2014, congressional Republicans "have blocked or voted down every single serious idea to strengthen the middle class."
He proceeded to rattle off a list of Democratic initiatives that have stalled in Congress, including raising the minimum wage, fair pay proposals and extending unemployment insurance.
"I know it drives you nuts that Washington isn't doing it, and it drives me nuts. The reason it's not getting done is, today, even basic common sense ideas can't get through this Congress," he told the crowd.