UPDATED: Obama To Pitch Jobs Plan On Capitol Hill Next Thursday
President Barack Obama has asked House and Senate leaders to allow him to address a joint session of Congress next Wednesday to deliver a highly anticipated jobs creation speech.
“As I have traveled across our country this summer and spoken with our fellow Americans, I have heard a consistent message: Washington needs to put aside politics and start making decisions based on what is best for our country and not what is best for each of our parties in order to grow the economy and create jobs,” Obama wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders. “We must answer this call.”
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney explained the reasoning behind scheduling the speech during his briefing on Wednesday.
“The President feels that we are at a moment when we need to take significant action to spur economic growth and to create jobs…he believes that the venue is appropriate because of the actions that need to be taken.”
Obama’s speech is scheduled for Wednesday September 7 at 8:00p.m EST.
Geoff Holtzman
After the president made his request, NBC responded by announcing that it would bump back the start time of next Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate to 9:00 pm ET. NBC, along with Politico, is sponsoring the debate, which will air on cable channel MSNBC.
However, shortly thereafter House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wrote to Obama, asking him to change the date of the address to Thursday.
This is a developing story
Geoff Holtzman
The White House has accepted Boehner’s offer to allow the President to address a joint session of Congress on the evening of Thursday, September 8.
In a statement, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that President Obama “is focused on the urgent need to create jobs and grow our economy, so he welcomes the opportunity to address a Joint Session of Congress on Thursday, September 8th and challenge our nation’s leaders to start focusing 100% of their attention on doing whatever they can to help the American people.”
Geoff Holtzman
White House spokesman Jay Carney brushed off accusations that the President bowed to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) by agreeing to give the jobs speech next Thursday instead of next Wednesday.
“Our focus, from the beginning, was to have the president have the opportunity to speak to the American people and the Congress, in front of Congress, at the soonest possible date,” he said during his press briefing today. Carney also repeated a statement he made on MSNBC this morning that the White House had consulted with Boehner’s office regarding the date of the speech before the President’s letter to the Speaker was leaked to the press yesterday afternoon.
Though Carney could not provide a specific time for the speech next Thursday, he assured worriers that the president would be finished before the start of the NFL season opener between the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 pm ET.
Geoff Holtzman
In a statement released just a short while ago, Carney announced that the President will deliver his speech at 7:00 pm ET next Thursday.
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