President Obama’s revamped stump speech—rolled out with less than 60 days before the election—contains a paragraph with a series of jokes about what he sees as the Republican obsession with cutting taxes. Republicans, he says, think tax cuts “can improve your love life” and “help you lose a few extra pounds.”
As he said it in both Iowa and New Hampshire on Friday:
“That’s because all [the Republicans] got to offer is the same prescriptions that they’ve had for the last 30 years -- tax cuts, tax cuts, gut some regulations, oh, and more tax cuts. (Laughter.) Tax cuts when times are good; tax cuts when times are bad. Tax cuts to help you lose a few extra pounds. (Laughter.) Tax cuts to improve your love life. (Laughter.) It will cure anything, according to them.
But on Saturday morning in Seminole, Florida, an audience member yelled back, disagreeing:
THE PRESIDENT: -- that’s because all they’ve got to offer is the same prescriptions that they’ve had for 30 years: Tax cuts, tax cuts, gut a few regulations, some more tax cuts. Tax cuts when times are good. Tax cuts when times are bad. Tax cuts to help you lose a few extra pounds -- (laughter) -- tax cuts to help your love life. (Laughter.) AUDIENCE MEMBER: It doesn’t help! (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: Somebody said it doesn’t help. (Laughter.) You tried those tax cuts, huh? (Laughter.)
Inspired by the friendly heckler, Obama added new layer to the joke on his next campaign stop in Kissimmee, Florida:
Tax cuts when times are good. Tax cuts when times are bad. Tax cuts to lose an extra few pounds -- (laughter) -- tax cuts to improve your love life. (Laughter.) Whatever the issue -- tax cuts. By the way, when I said that at the last stop we had, in St. Petersburg, a guy yelled out in the crowd -- he said, "It didn’t work!"
On Sunday, he reiterated his tax cut spiel, mentioning the heckler on the campaign trail in Florida.
Hat tip: Olivier Knox