Obama Takes Jobs Pitch On The Road

Less than 24 hours after addressing a joint session of Congress, President Obama traveled south down I-95 to showcase his latest jobs proposal before a supportive audience of nearly 9,000 gathered on the campus of the University of Richmond.

Like his speech Thursday night, the president belted out his call for Congress to “pass this bill” early and often. In between his impassioned appeals, Obama rattled off a laundry list of elements within the plan that the White House believes will attract the support of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Namely, Obama pointed to a series of proposed tax cuts and credits that, on paper, should have the blessing of congressional Republicans, who generally favor cutting taxes as a way to stimulate economic growth.

“Everything in the American Jobs Act,” Obama said, “is the kind of proposal that’s been supported in the past by both Democrats and Republicans.”

“Nothing radical in this bill,” he added.

(Click here to see video of Obama’s speech today)

Roughly $245 billion (over half) of the $447 billion plan would be generated through creating or extending new or current tax cuts. $140 billion would be spent on rehiring teachers and first responders, retrofitting schools, encouraging businesses to hire veterans returning from overseas, contracting out surface transportation projects and creating a national infrastructure bank. Finally, another $60 billion would be used to extend unemployment benefits and provide incentives for businesses to hire folks that have been out of work for longer than six months.

It’s an expensive plan that will no doubt cause some in Congress to recoil out of sticker shock. But the president today promised that “everything in it will be paid for.”

Last night, he guaranteed lawmakers that “The American Jobs Act will not add to the deficit.”

Early next week, Obama is expected to present his own plan to cut the nation’s deficit to members of the newly-formed Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction. Though the stated goal of the panel is to identify $1.5 trillion in savings over the next decade, the president will ask them to go further to make sure that his measure is paid for.

Few details of the design are known, but Obama hinted last night that he’ll propose rasing tax rates on the wealthy (likely anyone making more than $250,000 per year), ending corporate tax loopholes, cutting spending and making modest reforms to Medicare and Medicaid.

“This approach is basically the one I’ve been advocating for months,” he told members of Congress. “This isn’t political grandstanding. This isn’t class warfare. This is simple math.”

Pelosi Calls For Immediate, Bipartisan Action On Jobs Bill

By Andrea Salazar, Janie Amaya, Adrianna McGinley

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged both Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and fellow Democratic leaders Friday to take immediate action addressing key points in the president’s jobs proposal.

Calling the president’s jobs plan a “masterful” proposal, Pelosi stressed the urgency to pass legislation with bipartisan support, noting that other ideas are welcome depending on public response.

“One thing that we were very happy about is that [the President] would be taking it to the public,” Pelosi said. “Their feedback on it would further validate the need, or other proposals they may have on it, but at the end of the day, which is a short day, we will have legislation passed that addresses many of the proposals that the president put forth.”

President Obama, in a speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday, laid out a $447 billion plan to create jobs. He emphatically pushed legislators to take action, saying over a dozen times, “pass this jobs plan.”

Pelosi reiterated the president’s call to action, noting the lack of effective legislative action so far.

“What I do know is that the ideas that have been put forth thus far in the nearly 250 days that the Republicans have had the majority have not created one job,” she said.

Pelosi also acknowledged the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the reported terror plot but was unable to comment on details of the briefing.