Obama Planning Jobs Package

According to the Constitution, all money bills have to start in the House which is controlled by the GOP, and they don’t seem particularly interested in new spending. This is what the president has in mind:

President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress for billions of dollars in fresh spending to boost the economy and reduce unemployment, with a new focus on helping the long-term unemployed, an administration official said.

The president also will call for long-term cuts beyond the $1.5 trillion that Congress has charged a 12-member bipartisan “super-committee” of lawmakers with trimming by late November, said the official, who requested anonymity because plans for the speech haven’t been completed.

Obama will present a package of “meaningful new initiatives to grow the economy and create jobs” after the U.S. Labor Day holiday, which is Sept. 5, Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said via Twitter this morning.

(…)

Obama plans to propose a mix of tax cuts and infrastructure spending, including extending two measures that expire at the end of the year and which he’s been promoting on his current bus tour in the Midwest: the 2-percentage-point payroll tax cut for workers and longer unemployment insurance benefits, according to the official. The new spending and jobs proposals will go beyond those plans, the official said, without elaborating.

As part of his jobs package, Obama is said to be considering two sets of ideas: those that would require legislative action and steps that can be taken by the executive branch alone, without congressional approval.
The dollar amount of the additional long-term deficit reduction measures will exceed the cost of the short-term spending he will propose, the official said.

Posted by on August 17th, 2011 at 12:20 pm


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.