WASHINGTON — The top Republican in the House of Representatives on Tuesday called for President Barack Obama to fire top economic advisers Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers as part of an effort to revive the ailing economy.

“President Obama should ask for – and accept – the resignations of Secretary Geithner and Larry Summers,” Rep. John Boehner of Ohio said in a Tweet.

Geithner is the treasury secretary. Summers is the head of the National Economic Council.

“This is no substitute for a referendum on the president’s job-killing agenda,” Boehner was to say later Tuesday in a speech to the City Club of Cleveland. “That question will be put before the American people in due time. But we do not have the luxury of waiting months for the president to pick scapegoats for his failing ’stimulus’ policies.”