White House doubles down: Pass the WHOLE jobs bill, Republicans

[ProSense]

White House doubles down: Pass the WHOLE jobs bill, Republicans

By Greg Sargent

Yesterday, after the President finished up his speech last night, House Republicans responded by signaling an openness to passing parts of Obama’s new jobs bill, while signaling disapproval of Obama’s vow to barnstorm the country to get the American Jobs Act passed in its current form.

“The message was: either accept my package as it is, or I will take it to the American people,” Eric Cantor said. “I would say that that’s the wrong approach.”

Today, the White House offered its answer: Sorry, we want the whole bill passed. Nothing less.

With the spin war over the speech now shifting to a phase where Republicans are telegraphing a desire to compromise, even as Obama hits the road to sell his whole plan to the American people, this exchange on MSNBC this morning between Chuck Todd and White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer struck me as important:

TODD: The bill gets sent to Congress next week. Are you guys assuming that it gets sort of piecemealed, that at the end of the day you’re going to get some of what you want but not all of what you want?

PFEIFFER: No, we’re not assuming that. The president said it 16 times, I’ll say it a 17th time today. He wants them to pass the American Jobs Act. That’s the piece of legislation he’s sending up. It’s a simple thing. Puts the Americans back to work and puts more money into the pockets of working families. Our belief is that everything in this bill is reasonable. Everything in the bill has bipartisan support. Everything will have an effect right now. And so we want them to pass it.

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[phantom power]

1. Remain calm, but it seems almost like Obama is starting to get the right idea.

:woohoo:

[Guilded Lilly]

2. “The message was: either accept my package as it is...

or I will take it to the American people,” Eric Cantor said. “I would say that that’s the wrong approach.”

The Republicans have been using the wrong approach for years, pal. Taking it to the American people is the EXACT right approach.
The strength of the American people scares you doesn't it?

[Enrique]

3. Chuck Todd read my mind

that's the most important question for me, how much of this do they really intend to fight for? Their answer so far is all of it, which is good, the question now is is it true.

[Vincardog]

4. If they want to break it up let them pass the SPENDING parts first. Let the tax breaks wait until

people are SURE they want to remove money from the SS trust fund.

[Pirate Smile]

5. K&R.