The Pub: I don’t know. Pretty much sounded like the same speech repeated again. You know, the typical….government needs to spend money to create jobs, rich need to pay more in taxes and the Republicans better fall in line…..speech.
Come on! It’s getting old.
Attacking a deepening jobs crisis, President Barack Obama challenged a reluctant Congress Thursday night to urgently pass a larger-than-expected $450 billion plan to “jolt an economy that has stalled.” He urged lawmakers to slash Social Security taxes for tens of millions of Americans and for almost every business to encourage hiring.
“Stop the political circus,” an animated Obama told a joint session of Congress in a nationally televised speech. Over and over he implored lawmakers to “pass this jobs bill.”
Open to discussion but making no promises, Republican House Speaker John Boehner said Obama’s ideas would be considered but the president should give heed to Republicans’ as well. “It’s my hope that we can work together,” he said.
In announcing a plan heavy on the tax cuts that Republicans traditionally love, Obama sought to achieve multiple goals: offer a plan that could actually get through a deeply divided Congress, speed hiring in a nation where 14 million are out of work, shore up public confidence in his leadership and put Republicans on the spot to take action.
The fate of economy will define Obama’s re-election bid, but he sought to dismiss that element as political fodder that means nothing to hurting Americans.
Obama never estimated how many jobs would be created by his plan, which also includes new federal spending for construction, hiring and an extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. Despite his promise that it would all be paid for, he has not yet released the details on how.
