Obama unveils $300bn back-to-work plan
His underlying political strategy was simple: if Obama cannot get his ideas passed heading into his re-election year, he would try to co-opt the anger of Americans to punish Republicans at the polls if they kill the jobs plan.
In a rare speech to a joint session of Congress late last night, Obama was expected to offer a package of ideas that would affect people in their daily lives — tax relief, unemployment insurance, spending to support construction jobs and aid to states to keep people in jobs. Businesses would get their own tax breaks. And he was to promise a long-term plan to pay for it all.
Yet all of it will depend on a Republican-controlled House that has a different economic approach and no incentive to help a Democrat seeking a second term.
White House officials said Obama planned to formally send his plan — coined by the administration as the American Jobs Act — to Congress next week.
Obama’s chief of staff, William Daley, urged Republicans to abandon their politically driven refusal to work with Obama.
Daley declined to provide details of the jobs proposal ahead of the speech, saying only that it would help teachers, construction workers, medical emergency personnel and small businesses; ideas Republicans have supported in the past.
“The only reason some of these people may not support it now is because of the politics that’s going on, which is again unfortunate for the American people,” Daley said.
He said the jobs initiatives would be paid for without borrowed money, hinting that some of the funds would come from higher taxes on wealthier Americans.
Democrats familiar with the plans say the White House saw the speech as a pivot point.
They say the autumn offers the president a window to press congressional Republicans to act on his economic plan — and if they do not, Obama will spend 2012 running against them as obstructionists.
Whether that is enough to win over voters is another matter.
The president’s plan to pay for his ideas is a political necessity in a time of fiscal austerity.
Obama plans to cover the cost by asking a new congressional super-committee debt panel to go beyond its target of finding $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction by the end of November, so the extra savings can pay for short-term economic help.
At the heart of Obama’s plan will be extending, by one more year, a payroll tax cut for workers that went into effect this year. The president wants the payroll tax, which raises money for Social Security, to stay at 4.2% rather than kick back up to 6.2%. That tax applies to earnings up to $106,800.
