In a speech Thursday on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, attacked President Barack Obama on the economy, just as the president is launching a PR campaign to promote his economic agenda.

Sessions spent the early part of the summer as the chief opponent of the so-called “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill, which has already passed the Senate. In yesterday’s speech, he keyed in on that issue as a threat to America’s economy.

“Some say, ‘Well, our immigration plan… is somehow going to fix that,’” Sessions said referring to the United States’ high unemployment rate. “If we bring in more workers and everybody’s going to get pay raises and unemployment is going to get reduced. But that’s not what the Congressional Budget Office told us. At a time when we’re struggling trying to find jobs for American workers, many of themselves are immigrants to the country, African-Americans, poor people struggling to get by, you continue to bring in a larger flow of labor than the country can absorb. As Peter Kirsanow at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said, we don’t have a shortage of workers in America, we have an excess of workers in America.”

Later in his speech, Sessions called for a change in direction with regard to Obama’s economic policy.

“It’s time for this nation to begin a serious discussion about what it is that’s causing our economy to slide and what it is we can do realistically to create jobs, growth, higher wages and so forth,” he said. “One of the things you should do is not bring in more labor than we have jobs for. That’s pretty simple to me. ”

Sessions also said the Obama administration could improve the country’s economic situation by undertaking efforts to decrease the cost of energy, limit regulations that burden job creators, simplify the tax system and implement trade practices that make U.S. businesses more competitive.

Related:
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2. Sessions: House must not negotiate with Senate immigration bill
3. Immigration bill passes, Senate gallery chants “YES WE CAN!”

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