President Barack Obama laced into his conservative Republican congressional critics Tuesday, accusing them of putting partisan political concerns before the country's interests.

Appearing before a crowd of farmers and small-business owners in the presidential battleground state of Iowa, Obama called on Congress to help boost an anemic economy by passing an extension of the payroll tax cut and a new road construction bill, among other things.

"America is going to come back from this recession stronger than before," the president declared. But I "need your help sending a message to Congress" that "it's time to put politics aside and get something done," he said.

Elements in Congress refuse to "put country ahead of faction," Obama said. It is time to "put country ahead of party and put the next generation ahead of the next election. That's what I'm fighting for."

Obama's latest salvo against tea party-backed Republicans came in the midst of the president's three-day Midwestern bus tour, ostensibly meant to promote administration's new rural economic development initiatives.

The president is scheduled to discussed a number of political and economic issues during a one-on-one interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday afternoon.