Obama fundraising off shutdown fight

President Obama is raising money for Democrats off the threat of a government shutdown.

In a fundraising email blasted out Thursday by the Democratic National Committee, Obama takes Republican lawmakers to task for threatening to block government spending bills if they don’t strip funding for Planned Parenthood.

“Some folks are threatening to shut down the government because I won’t accept a budget that hurts the middle class or makes it harder for women to access health care services they need by defunding Planned Parenthood,” Obama wrote.

{mosads}“If we want a Congress that won’t play politics with people’s lives, we’ve got to elect Democrats who will work tirelessly fighting for people like you and me,” he added.

Obama is ramping up his efforts to boost Democrats as the 2016 campaign enters a busy fall.

The email asks Democrats to pitch in anywhere between $3 and $100 dollars. Later Thursday, Obama will attend a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser at the tony St. Regis Hotel in Washington.

Obama ripped Republicans for opposing lifting spending caps, known as sequestration, to fund infrastructure, education and job training programs he says will boost the economy.

The president has threatened to veto a final budget that does not lift the spending caps, but GOP leaders favor keeping them in place.

A group of House Republicans has threatened to block any funding for Planned Parenthood, which has been roiled by a controversy stemming from secretly filmed videos depicting discussions about fetal tissue donations. Obama and Democrats do not support such a move.

Obama also took aim at GOP presidential candidates who squabbled over whether to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood during Wednesday night’s debate on CNN.

“Last night, the Republican candidates for president tried to explain why one of them should be the next person to lead this country,” he said. “Well, Republicans have an opportunity to show some leadership right now — in this very moment.”

The White House said the president did not watch the debate, the second of nine sanctioned sessions during the GOP primary. But he appears increasingly willing to weigh in on the campaign.

Twice this week, once during a stop in the early-voting state of Iowa, Obama took aim at Republican front-runner Donald Trump, albeit without using his name.

He dismissed Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” and pushed back against his contention that countries such as China and Mexico are “killing” the U.S.

“Despite the perennial doom and gloom that I guess is inevitably part of a presidential campaign, America is winning right now,” Obama told a group of business executives on Wednesday. “America is great right now.”