Highlights From Today's White House Gaggle

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney addressed reporters on a range of key issues this morning, from previewing President Obama’s jobs plan speech today in North Carolina, to yesterday’s special congressional elections in Nevada and New York, both won by Republicans, to reports suggesting that the White House inappropriately rushed millions of dollars worth of stimulus grants to energy company Solyndra, which would later go bankrupt.

The following notes are courtesy of today’s White House travel pool reporter, Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico:

Carney spoke with reporters for about 15 minutes on poll numbers, Solyndra and special elections

Highlights of the gaggle:

In his remarks, the President will announce a new memorandum directing agencies to accelerate their payments to small businesses. The goverment pays $100 billion to small businesses annually. Under the new policy, the government will cut goal in half, from 30 days to 15 days. The idea came from the jobs council.

On Bloomberg News poll showing 51 percent of Americans don’t think the jobs plan will lower unemployment: “I think that means half the American people based on that poll believe it will help create jobs and grow the economy. … The American people want Washington to take action.”

More of a sales job needed from the president?

“We are not done pressing Congress and reaching out to the American people.”

Reax to the special elections. How can they be viewed as anything other than a referendum?

“Special elections are often unique and their outcomes don’t tell you very much about future regularly scheduled elections.”

“You can make those predictions and look foolish in 14 months or not, I’m simply saying we do not view them it way (as a referendum).”

In New York, it was a special case in a specific district in a low turnout election, Carney said.

On Solyndra emails, did the admin act appropriately?

“What the emails make clear is there was urgency to make a decision on a scheduling matter. It is a big proposition to move the president or to put on an event and that sort of thing so people were simply looking for answers about whether or not people could move forward.”

The admin sees nothing wrong with accelerating the process for a scheduling need?

“It had nothing to - and there is no evidence to the contrary - nothing to do with anything besides the need to get an answer to make a scheduling decision.”

Is the president happy with the approach?

Carney said he hasn’t discussed it with the president.

Asked if there an internal review, Carney said the administration has been cooperative with Congress.

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.

GOP Senators Expect More "Hopeless" Policies From Jobs Speech

A group of Republican senators blasted President Obama’s economic policies Thursday previewing his highly anticipated jobs speech.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that he expects more of the same “hopeless” measures from Obama’s speech, but acknowledged that the GOP stands ready to work with him.

“I think tonight you’re going to see, probably, some of the same plays from the same old playbook,” Thune said. “There’s a gap between what [Obama] says and what he does. He says some of the right things but his policies tell an entirely different story.”

Thune was joined by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) who previously opposed Obama’s proposal to spend as much as $300 billion to boost job growth and spur the economy. Sessions argued that spending more would only increase the nation’s debt, something the Alabama Republican said is stalling economic growth.

“The debt is the jobs crisis,” Sessions said. “There’s no doubt about it that the debt of the United States is causing great concern through our entire economy.”

Sessions said he wants to hear the president lay out specifics regarding how Obama plans on paying for his proposals to extend payroll tax cuts and extending jobless benefits that will soon expire. These two measures combined amount to nearly $170 billion in spending.

“I’ll be looking tonight to see if this proposal is, indeed, paid for, or is it just another attempt to gain a sugar high by immediate spending that will increase our debt and will weaken our economy.”

Boehner Bringing Business Leaders To Jobs Speech

House Republicans will be inviting a dozen business leaders to President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress Thursday night in an attempt to highlight the real world impact of excessive regulations.

Among the attendees will be Henry Juszkiewicz, the CEO of Gibson Guitars, whose plant was raided by federal agents last month for allegedly using illegally imported wood.

“[They] put a real face on how these regulations impact business specifically,” House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Thursday morning.

The Obama administration has pledged to help the business community by ordering a government-wide review of existing regulations and cutting those deemed expendable. However, House Republicans claim that regulatory action currently under consideration by the White House could ultimately cost the U.S. economy over $100 billion.

Business leaders invited by the Speaker also include the Lisa Ingram, the Chief Operation Officer for the fast food chain White Castle and Rock Katschnig, a farmer who publicly urged President Obama during a town hall in Illinois to spare the agriculture from dust regulations.

President Obama will deliver his speech at 7:00pm. Although he will be addressing both chambers of Congress, numerous members have announced that they will not be attending. When asked what he thought Thursday about some Republican members’ decision to skip the speech, Boehner said that he had urged them to attend, but that the choice is up to them.

“Remember, I’m just the Speaker,” Boehner said.