Obama: Americans are ‘better off’ now

President Obama said Americans were “better off now than when I came into office,” during a fundraiser Monday night outside of Washington.

Obama also slammed congressional Republicans for their focus on the terror attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the implementation of ObamaCare.

{mosads}The president told attendees at the high-dollar soiree in Potomac, Md., that his Republican opposition in Congress had been “captured by ideologues” whose principal focus was on “how to make people sufficiently skeptical, so they can win the next election.”

“The debate now is about what?” Obama asked. “Benghazi? ObamaCare? It becomes this endless loop.”

Obama told donors that he preferred a robust Republican Party —  “I come from the Land of Lincoln” — but that the current iteration of the GOP did not believe “that government can get anything done.”

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Obama’s remarks came at a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at the home of Jeffrey Drenzer, a medical training and technology executive. Tickets to the event, billed as an “intimate dinner,” ranged from $10,000 per person to $32,400 per couple. 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) joined a sizable contingent of House Democrats at the event, including Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and fellow Maryland Democrats Elijah Cummings, Chris Van Hollen, Donna Edwards, Dutch Ruppersberger and John Delaney. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) was also in attendance.

On his way to the fundraiser, Obama stopped to chat with a group of little league teams at a Northwest D.C. baseball field. The president posed for pictures and quizzed the co-ed teams on their drills.