The Obama campaign is not mincing words: the Republicans want the economy to fail.

Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager, and David Axelrod, Obama campaign strategist, both appeared on political shows to respond to allegations that Obama is responsible for the rising unemployment rate.

In fact, Obama's campaign responded, it's the Republicans in Congress who are stalling on job-creation proposals.

On CBS' Face the Nation, Axelrod said Republicans were "high-fiving each other" over bad economic news.

These are the architects of obstruction and now they're complaining about the pace of the recovery. They should put down their political hats and join us and help solve these problems.

Axelrod said Republicans should stop sitting on their hands, a sentiment Cutter reiterated. On ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos, she said, "They need to get off their hands and stop rooting for failure."

These comments were partially in response to what Romney campaign advisor Eric Fehrnstrom said on This Week, when he blamed Obama for the failing economy.

We gave the keys to the largest economy in the world to a person who did not have any prior executive leadership experience. He never even ran a corner store and I think it shows in the way he's handling the economy.

But Axelrod and Cutter both pointed out that Obama has pushed job-creation legislation including proposals to help state and local governments retain firefighters, police, and teachers.

[Image via AP]