President Obama on Monday pressed Congress to help unemployed veterans find jobs, seeking rare bipartisan support on Capitol Hill after a series of defeats on his economic proposals a year before the 2012 election.
Flanked by military veterans in the White House Rose Garden, Obama urged lawmakers to pass two tax credits for soldiers that they had earlier rejected along with his $447 billion jobs package.
The president also announced a series of executive actions that would benefit veterans but wouldn’t require the approval of Congress, the latest in a series of such initiatives Obama has used to demonstrate that he is committed to creating jobs even as he blames Republicans for gridlock in Congress.
“Bold action from Congress ultimately is the only way we’re going to put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work right now and rebuild an economy where everyone who works hard has a chance to get ahead,” Obama said.
In recent weeks, Obama signed executive orders to help homeowners with their mortgages and students with their college loans.
He took those executive actions after Senate Republicans blocked separate bills that would have provided local governments with billions of dollars for teachers, first responders and construction workers. Conservatives balked at Obama’s insistence that such measures be funded by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
Obama is asking Congress to approve bills that would give companies a $5,600 tax credit for every unemployed veteran they hire and a $9,600 credit for every veteran with service-connected disability who is hired. The Senate is expected to take up the measures this week.
Unlike previous jobs measures, the president is not insisting that the veteran benefits be funded by raising taxes on the wealthy, a change that could allow him to win Republican support.
“We need the president to engage in the process, not just give more speeches,” said Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. “Giving veterans a hand up is one clear area of common ground.”
Still, Republicans accused Obama of playing politics with the announcement. The Republican-led House has already approved legislation that would help returning veterans look for and train for new jobs, but that legislation stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Obama announced three new executive actions — an online service to help veterans find employment, a jobs bank and so-called “gold card” granting them services at career centers — intended to help about 850,000 unemployed veterans.
“We ask our men and women in uniform to leave their families and their jobs and risk their lives to fight for our country, and the last thing they should have to do is fight for a job when they come home,” the president said. “If Congress won’t act, I will.”
Veterans groups welcomed the White House effort.
“It’s time to pull out all the stops,” said Bob Wallace, executive director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “After their service to the country, our war fighters have been hit disproportionately hard by the economic downturn with unemployment rates that eclipse their non-military cohorts.”
According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate for post-Sept. 11 veterans was 12.1 percent in October. The national unemployment rate is now 9 percent.
