Obama Prods Congress To Unite On Job Creation

Filed by KOSU News in US News.
February 9, 2010

President Obama met with House and Senate leaders Tuesday to push for consensus on legislation that creates jobs, hoping a series of bills could hurdle past a months-long partisan deadlock in Congress and win quick passage.

“I think it’s fair to say that the American people are frustrated with the lack of progress on some key issues,” Obama said before the White House meeting, adding that “there should be some areas where we can agree.”

“A good place to start, and what I hope to spend a lot of time on in these discussions today, is how we can move forward on a jobs package that encourages small business to hire,” he said.

In his State of the Union address, Obama promised to hold monthly gatherings with congressional leaders to promote bipartisanship. Tuesday’s session was the first of those.

The nation’s unemployment rate stands at 9.7 percent, and Obama has made job creation a top priority. Although unemployment is slightly lower than the 26-year high of 10.1 percent in October, the decline was partly due to a revision in the monthly data released last week.

“I’m confident that if we move forward in a spirit of keeping in mind what’s best for the American people, we should be able to accomplish a lot,” the president said.

Obama has proposed tax breaks and other incentives to encourage small businesses to hire new workers. He noted Tuesday that members of both parties have voiced concern about the deficit, though they have very different views about the taxes and spending cuts needed to tackle the issue.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said the meeting was preliminary and that at this point the president and lawmakers were “just talking.”

“There isn’t any bill yet, but the goal is to get a consensus non-partisan type bill to move ahead and do it quickly,” he said on CNBC. “I’m not for all of this spending that you’ve heard from the other side of the aisle. I’m for tax relief.”

The White House meeting came on the same day that White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said the job market was stabilizing even though the economy is still far from healthy.

“There’s no question that the growth rate will fluctuate from quarter to quarter, and I think that everyone has recognized that there were some special factors in the fourth quarter,” Summers said, referring to the 5.7 percent economic-growth rate recorded in the final three months of last year.

Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, also voiced support for the president’s proposed “Volcker Rule,” which would put new curbs on the size and scope of U.S. banks.