Action Sports with Leigh Roche

President Barack Obama blasted congressional Republicans Friday for failing to craft a workable response to the border crisis before leaving Washington for their summer recess, setting the stage for executive actions to address the surge in child migrants from Central America.

“House Republicans, as we speak, are trying to pass the most extreme and unworkable version of a bill that they already know is going nowhere, that can’t pass the Senate,” Obama said in a hastily-announced afternoon appearance in the White House press briefing room.

“They’re not even trying to to solve the problem,” the president complained. “This is a message bill….just so they can check a box before leaving town tomorrow.”

Obama said that if Congress doesn’t pass additional funding to deal with the influx of child migrants and families from Central America, he’ll have to act on his own to try to address the situation.

(Also on POLITICO: House moves toward vote on border deal)

“I’m going to have to act alone because we don’t have enough resources,” the president said. “Without additional resources and help from Congress we're just not going to have the resources to fully solve the problem…. While they’re out on vacation, I’m going to have to make some tough choices to meet the challenge.”

Obama’s public remarks came as House Republicans scrambled Friday to produce a largely-symbolic border bill, after abandoning a previous version of the legislation Thursday just before it was to come to a vote. The decision to jettison the bill produced a backlash from moderate GOP members who feared being painted as do-nothings, especially in advance of a long August recess.

House Republican leaders spent much of Friday trying to refashion the legislation so it could win a majority of GOP members.

At times, Obama smiled as he described House GOP actions, appearing to mock their efforts and reflect a degree of exasperation.

(Also on POLITICO: House GOP in disarray: Border fights delay recess)

”The disagreement isn’t between me and the House Republicans. It’s between the House Republicans and Senate Republicans. It’s between House Republicans and the business community. It’s between House Republicans and the evangelical community. I’m just one of the people they disagree with on this issue,” Obama said. “They cant even pass their own version of the bill…..That’s a disagreement between the House Republicans and the House Republicans.”

Obama’s talk of action appeared to be referring to efforts to redirect funds to support the U.S. Government response to the border surge, but he’s also considering a series of broader immigration-related actions, including proposals to give quasi-legal status to millions of illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

The president also said the House’s approach undercut arguments many Republican members have made that he has gone too far by taking executive actions on a series of fronts ranging from Obamacare to immigration to welfare reform.

“Just a few days earlier, they voted to sue me for acting on my own. Then, when they couldn’t pass a bill yesterday, they said I should act on my own because they couldn’t pass a bill,” Obama said dismissively....