President Obama is expected to propose a $300 billion jobs plan on Thursday that relies on tax increases and additional federal spending even though congressional Republicans have unequivocally rejected such proposals before.
“The important factor here is not the top-line number, it is the substance underneath the number,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday, after dodging questions about the $300 billion cost estimate reported by the Associated Press. “The substance here will be a series of measures that should have — and have had in the past — bipartisan support.”
While Carney waxed on about the president’s willingness to compromise, Republicans on Capitol Hill were building fervent opposition to Obama’s new plan, calling it a repeat of the “failed” $830 billion stimulus package that Congress passed in 2009.
“[Obama’s] central message, evidently, is that anyone who doesn’t rubber-stamp his economic agenda is putting politics above country,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “With all due respect, Mr. President, there’s a much simpler reason for opposing your economic proposals that has nothing to do with politics: they don’t work.”
The Republican National Committee put up a television ad Wednesday slamming the president’s record on job creation and his reliance on spending to spur economic activity.
“Same words, same speeches, same failed policies,” the ad says. “It’s time to change direction.”
With the release of the ad, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus accused the president of spending more time campaigning and fundraising than working to create jobs.
“We’ve heard this all before,” Priebus said. “Expect this president to talk about the same-old economic half-measures that he’s championed since taking office and to blame others for his lack of leadership.”
Obama’s new jobs plan appears to have a similar focus to the 2009 stimulus bill, with a concentration on tax cuts, infrastructure spending and funding for local governments.
But White House officials have avoided making comparisons between the president’s new plan and the stimulus he championed two years ago.
Likewise, Democrats on the Hill have stopped using the word “stimulus” altogether, because of its big-government, big-spending connotations.
Carney made clear that Obama’s plan, which will include a host of tax cuts for businesses and middle class families, does not equate to government interference in the private sector.
“Mostly, this is about encouraging private-sector growth… [and] giving American families more money to make ends meet,” Carney said.
Whether or not Republicans get behind his proposals, Obama will have the support of the American people, he argued.
“Every American understands that the eight million jobs lost during this recession came because of a recession that began and was caused by policy decisions made prior to this president coming into office,” Carney said. Obama’s new plan “will be paid for,” he added, “and we believe that his pay-fors — to use inside-the Beltway congressional language — will be supported by the American people.”
