Obama puts jobs at top of agenda

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama pushed job creation to the top of his agenda and vowed not to abandon his struggling healthcare overhaul after a political setback that raised doubts about his leadership.

With the economy still weak and unemployment at 10%, “jobs must be our number one focus in 2010”, Obama told Congress in his State of the Union address.

Obama – who inherited a financial crisis and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan –admitted he had made mistakes and that his first year in office had been a difficult one.

But he promised not to give up in his efforts to change the way Washington works and push through his ambitious agenda for financial reforms, healthcare, energy and climate change, despite many Democrats fearing they will lose their seats in November congressional elections.

“We don’t quit. I don’t quit,” he told Congress, split mainly along party lines over Obama’s policies.

“Let’s seize this moment – to start anew, to carry the dream forward and to strengthen our union once more.”

He pledged tough new rules for Wall Street but said he was “not interested in punishing banks”, comments that helped boost US stock futures.

Obama said he would work to dig the country out of a “massive fiscal hole” and was willing to use his veto power to enforce budgetary discipline.

The US deficit – a record $1.4 trillion (€1tn) in 2009 or almost 10% of gross domestic product – is forecast by the Congressional Budget Office to fall slightly this year to $1.35tn.

Obama vowed to double exports in five years to help create jobs, which weighed on the dollar and prompted some in the market to think the government may seek a weaker US currency.

Amid a drop in his popularity and the loss by Democrats of a pivotal Senate seat in Massachusetts, Obama did not gloss over his political difficulties.

But his tone at times was feisty and defiant. He recognised that creating jobs is his most pressing task but did not concede the defeat of his sweeping agenda.

The loss in Massachusetts was seen by some political analysts as a referendum on Obama’s policies, reflecting voter anxiety about the healthcare reform effort but also frustration with the punishing double-digit unemployment rate.

“People are out of work. They are hurting. They need our help,” Obama said. “And I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay.”

Huge deficits have also hurt Obama’s standing. To counter the criticism on spending, Obama proposed a three-year freeze on some domestic programs to take aim at soaring budget deficits. He also called for the creation of a bipartisan commission to tackle long- term budget challenges.

His former rival for the presidency, Republican Senator John McCain, said he was “disappointed”.

“It was disingenuous for him to talk about spending freezes in 2010 when he wants a ‘jobs bill’ that could be anywhere from $80 billion to $115bn,” McCain said.

Many viewers in a CNN poll also seemed unconvinced, with a global survey of 200,000 Twitter messages showing 43% had positive reactions to the speech and 39% negative.

Obama’s healthcare reform legislation faces possible failure now that Democrats no longer hold a “supermajority” of 60 Senate votes to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.