Obama Proposes $447 Billion Jobs Stimulus Plan

[The Northerner]

President Barack Obama channeled the national frustration with the economy that threatens his political standing and challenged the U.S. Congress to pass a $447 billion jobs plan tilted heavily toward the Republican prescription of tax cuts.

The president, speaking before a joint session of Congress, demanded six times that lawmakers act “right away” on a plan that would boost spending on infrastructure, stem teacher layoffs and cut in half the payroll taxes paid by workers and small business owners.

“The question is whether, in the face of an ongoing national crisis, we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy,” Obama told the lawmakers yesterday.

Job growth stalled last month and the unemployment rate has hovered at or above 9 percent for more than two years. The president’s job-approval ratings are falling to new lows as public doubts about his stewardship of the economy rise. Public opinion of Congress has dropped even lower.

Tax cuts account for more than half the dollar value of the president’s latest plan to turn the economy around, and administration officials said they believe that will have the greatest appeal to Republicans in Congress. The president dared his adversaries to oppose a provision that would extend and deepen payroll tax cuts due to expire Dec. 31.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-08/obama-proposes-cutting-payroll-taxes-in-half.html

[cutlassmama]

1. Republicans - the party of no

[Exultant Democracy]

2. tax cuts, more or less the least effective form of economic stimulus spending