HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) — President Barack Obama says that there is nothing wrong with America — but there is something wrong with American politics.
He says Washington has seen the worst kind of partisanship and the worst kind of gridlock in recent months, and that it's undermined public confidence and made things worse instead of better. The president said people are frustrated and he is, too.
The president spoke Thursday at an advanced battery manufacturing plant in Holland, Mich., on his first official trip outside of Washington in weeks since negotiations on the debt crisis kept him stuck in the capital.
He said the downgrade of U.S. debt could have been entirely avoided if politicians had been willing to compromise.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.