President Obama slams US Senate Republicans and state of Arizona

Lashing out at the Senate GOP for blocking the financial regulatory reform legislation on Capitol Hill, Mr. Obama accused republicans of not looking out for Americans' best interests.

"The American people deserve an honest debate on this bill, it's been 2 years since the financial crisis became clear," the president said to a town hall audience in Ottumwa, Iowa "You should not have to wait one more day for some of the strongest consumer protections ever."

Mr. Obama criticized the GOP's success of twice blocking debate on the legislation to rein in Wall Street and used his 2 day tour through the midwest to call for an honest debate back in Washington.

"I'm not even asking them to vote for the bill, I just want to let them debate it," the president said at his final stop for the day. "It's one thing to oppose reform, but to oppose just even talking about it in front of the American people and having a legitimate debate, that's not right."

During a question and answer session at the. local community college, Mr. Obama was asked what his hopes were for immigration reform. The President used the opportunity to once again criticized  a controversial immigration bill signed into law in Arizona last week as a "poorly conceived law" that allows police to question anyone about their immigration status if they have reason to suspect they are in the country illegally. Mr. Obama cautioned many legal hispanic will be harassed which is "not the right way to go".

The president said a comprehensive federal immigration effort - one which includes securing the borders and cracking down on companies that purposely hire undocumented workers - is needed to prevent "bad laws" like Arizona's.

Mr. Obama said he hoped to get a deal done "sometime soon" but said he needed Republican help.

"I will bring the majority of Democrats to the table in getting this done," Obama said in response to a question at a town hall in south-central Iowa. "But I've got to have some help from the other side."