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News Only [ ] News Photos [ ] Video/Audio * _____________________ * News Search Obama to Congress: 'Pass this jobs bill' AP * Obama AP - President Barack Obama delivers a speech to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, ... * President Barack Obama Slideshow:President Barack Obama * President Obama Pushes $447B Jobs Plan Play Video Barack Obama Video:President Obama Pushes $447B Jobs Plan ABC News By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent David Espo, Ap Special Correspondent - 1 min ago WASHINGTON - Wasting no time, President Barack Obama is pitching to the public his $447 billion jobs program of tax cuts and new spending after bluntly telling Congress to "stop the political circus" and fix the economy. But that doesn't mean Republicans are buying. "The proposals the president outlined tonight merit consideration," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday after Obama, in a nationally televised address to Congress, laid out an agenda that leaned heavily on payroll tax cuts to put money into the economy. "We hope he gives serious consideration to our ideas as well. "It's my hope that we can work together," Boehner added. While noncommittal, it was one of the more generous reactions from Republicans to a speech from a Democratic president in political trouble seeking bipartisanship to repair a long-ailing economy. "You should pass it right away," the president told lawmakers more than once and pledged to campaign for its enactment "in every corner of this country." To that end, Obama set his first trip for Friday to Richmond, Va., a city represented by the No. 2 Republican in the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor. There were other hints that Obama intends to carry the fight to Republicans, including his statement that "there's a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky" - the states that sent Boehner and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to Congress. In a statement issued after the speech, McConnell said, "For months, we've been engaged in a national debate about spending and debt, about the need to get our nation's fiscal house in order, about the need to rein in government. ... Yet here we are, tonight, being asked by this same president to support even more government spending with the assurance that he'll figure out a way to pay for it later." Obama offered no estimate of the number of jobs his plan would create. He said the tax cuts he is recommending would mean $1,500 a year for the typical working family and $80,000 for businesses with 50 employees of average pay. Unemployment has been stuck at 9.1 percent for two consecutive months and not even the administration is projecting significant improvement anytime soon. With a nod to deficit hawks - independent voters among them - Obama also said he would outline legislation in coming days to offset the bill's $447 billion price tag so it wouldn't add to federal deficits. While the bill's $253 billion in tax cuts could well draw support from Republicans, an additional $194 billion in new spending likely will prove a harder sell. The president asked for the money to fund highway and other construction projects, modernize schools, stabilize blighted neighborhoods and help states hire teachers and first responders. "The president's plan is nothing new," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee. Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he was "concerned that what we've heard from President Obama this evening is an echo of his administration's unsuccessful strategy of the last few years, which has resulted in unsustainable spending that has skyrocketed the budget deficit and pushed our nation further into fiscal crisis." "Rather than offer a new road map for recovery and reform, he merely dusted off a tired agenda of old ideas wrapped in freshly partisan rhetoric," said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate and a member of the special committee just embarking on talks to cut future deficits by $1.2 trillion or more. The reaction of Democrats in Congress was supportive of the president but in terms more partisan than he had used. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he hoped the proposals would "present a litmus test to Republicans. I hope they will show the American people that they are more interested in creating jobs than defeating President Obama." Democrats control a majority in the Senate but lack the 60 votes to pass legislation over Republican objections. They have little power in the House, where Republicans are in control. But the party's leader in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, challenged the majority in terms similar to Reid's. "Republicans have a choice to either work with Democrats on the immediate need to create jobs or waste more time when American families are demanding action," she said. The centerpiece of Obama's plan is a reduction in the Social Security payroll tax for millions of workers as well as for employers. The tax for individuals was cut from 6.2 percent of wages to 4.2 percent for the current year but would rise again on Jan. 1 without action by Congress. Instead, Obama proposed cutting it further for 2012, to 3.1 percent. The same 3.1 percent tax would apply to employers, half of what they now pay. In addition, businesses would receive additional tax breaks for hiring veterans or individuals who have been without work for more than six months. A fact sheet distributed by the White House said if enacted, the president's proposals would prevent 280,000 teacher layoffs, modernize 35,000 schools and establish a new National Infrastructure Bank to modernize roads, rails and other public facilities. The White House also said an extension of unemployment insurance the president is seeking would prevent 5 million Americans from losing their benefits and encourage states to put initiatives into place along the lines of a Georgia program in which individuals collecting unemployment benefits can do temporary work. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook * More on Barack Obama * Economists show support for Obama job-growth plan AP * Chinese paper warns US on arms sale to Taiwan AP * Asian stocks mixed after Bernanke, Obama speeches AP More >> More... * Video: Laid off Houston man remains dispirited after President's speech 11 News Houston * Video: Chicagoans Have High Hopes For Obama Job Plan CBS 2 Chicago * Video: Walter's Perspective: Walsh Is Right To Boycott Obama CBS 2 Chicago 5,753 Comments Show: [_____________] Sort Post a Comment * Comments 1 - 10 of 5753 * First * Prev * Next * Last * Daniel C 307 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 50 users disliked this comment Daniel C Fri Apr 02, 2010 02:11 am PDT Report Abuse Wake up? Why should anyone wake up? Just about everything in our lives is geared towards making us ill-informed, ignorant, passive robo-zombies. I see them cluttering the malls, stumbling down the aisles of Wal-Mart with their shoeless offspring, trying to find a Zhu Zhu Pet because they're too brain dead to keep an actual hamster alive. I only wish the idiots in Hollywood were right and 2012 would see the end of the world, but I fear we'll have to watch the numbskulls our crumbling education system is spewing forth come to power first. * Bluerune 20 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 1 users disliked this comment Bluerune Tue Aug 30, 2011 05:16 am PDT Report Abuse He has Jeffery Imelt on his staff and he is very experienced in crafting job creation programs---in China. * Made in Detroit 25 77 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 12 users disliked this comment Made in Detroit 25 Fri Apr 02, 2010 03:26 am PDT Report Abuse Come here to Michigan! WE need to jobs the most! We have always needed the jobs because we have always LOST the most jobs. Our unemployment has been high since the 80's before this @#$% recession! Who cared about Detroit during this recession? NO ONE! When NY got attacked I supported NY. When Katrina hit New Orleans I supported them. When we lost our work and the economy went south, who supported us? No one, they just went and bought Toyotas. And yes the UAW sucks too. * YEC 7 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment YEC 9 hours ago Report Abuse The only jobs CONgress creates are lobbyists! * segmentedsky 6 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment segmentedsky 7 hours ago Report Abuse The speech was tonight and comments go back to January, 2010. Yahoo needs to get rid of more than the CEO. The company seems to have serious problems. * segmentedsky 22 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 3 users disliked this comment segmentedsky Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:39 am PDT Report Abuse Why doesn't Obama lay out his plan now, it might give moral support to some folks who are barely holding on. I suspect some more ploys will come out, from both parties, as elections near. * zbop 24 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 4 users disliked this comment zbop Wed Aug 17, 2011 05:32 am PDT Report Abuse all speech-no action ba * Winnie Gillis 3 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment Winnie Gillis 4 hours ago Report Abuse But, gee tax cuts have been doing such a Teerific job on cutting unemployment for years now, why wouldn't we want more of the same? Help me remember is it insanity or stupidity to keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to get a different result? * Ali 152 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 40 users disliked this comment Ali Fri Apr 02, 2010 02:42 am PDT Report Abuse He goes to all these places to rally support for his party, but I doubt anyone is allowed to be there unless they already support him. It costs a lot of money to fly around in Air Force 1. I don't care which party it is, when the people are hurting the way a lot of people are in this country are right now, seems a little hard to swollow when our politicians even the President, displays how much luxury they have. It is just to get it aired on TV, how all these people love and support him so much. Why doesn't he just go on a TV show every day for a few minutes. I personally am sick of all the crap in DC. It is almost like they flaunt all they have, and are so sympathetic to all the poor people. It seems to me if they should get elected to a govt. job and aren't rich, they aren't there long before they are millionairs. They live in big fancy homes, usually 2, one in DC and one in their home state. Some how folks, the only thing, WE THE PEOPLE can do to stop the corruption, is to set term limits, and get rid of these career politicians, we would save billions by not giving them their fancy life time benefit packages. I don't see many of them that care about the people, they are control freaks, that love the power they have. I am sick of all of them. Left or Right, we need the people to fix the probems, and stop the insanity. Vote.... Get information on the candidate, don't listen to their fancy talk get the facts on them before you vote for them. Don't let them sell you snake oil, find out who they are! * Scott 173 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 49 users disliked this comment Scott Fri Apr 02, 2010 02:30 am PDT Report Abuse The president has been talking jobs since he entered office. Two-thirds of his state of the union was on the economy. He keeps talking, but I don't see anyone getting jobs back. Will another government program work this time around? Probably not. Part of courage is realizing when you've falied, and making a change in your approach. Part of selfishness is clinging on to your old ways, hoping that it will work one day. The same holds true with us who elected him and his Congress lackeys. * Comments 1 - 10 of 5753 * First * Prev * Next * Last Post a Comment Sign in to post a comment, or Sign up for a free account. 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