JAMESTOWN: President Barack Obama said Tuesday he sees parallels between the anti-Wall Street protests and the conservative Tea Party movement that is dominating the US political scene.
"I understand the frustrations being expressed in those protests," Obama told ABC television in an interview set to air Tuesday.
"In some ways, they're not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party," the president said.
"Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren't looking out for them," Obama told ABC.
Obama was Tuesday on the second day of a campaign-style bus tour to rally support for his jobs plans, which has stalled in Congress, and to boost his appeal in two states critical to his 2012 re-election effort.
The floundering economy, the lack of employment prospects and the belief that wealthy corporations get a better financial break than everyday working Americans, is part of what has fueled the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Meanwhile, the Tea Party seems largely driven by the desire to squelch runaway deficits and excessive spending, and shrink "big" government.
Obama's three-day bus tour aims to tout his $447 billion jobs bill hoping to revive economic growth and cut America's 9.1 percent unemployment rate.
The White House has touted the jobs bill as a shot-in-the-arm for the economy, and accused Republicans of playing politics by blocking it during a Senate vote last week.
Republicans, who call Obama's proposals "class warfare" and an attack on job creators, insist cutting taxes and government spending is the way to spur businesses to create jobs and stimulate economic growth.
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