Congress gives Obama's jobs plan mixed reviews

Some Republican congressional officials are dismissing President Obama's job creation plan, while others intend on listening of areas of agreement.

/ Mark Wilson

Republicans and Democrats emerged from the joint session of Congress tonight with mixed reviews of the President Obama's speech unveiling the "American Jobs Act."

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who is the co-chair of the congressional "super committee" tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in savings to reduce the deficit, immediately came out against the president's proposal for the committee to find additional savings to offset the cost of his jobs plan.

"This proposal would make the already-arduous challenge of finding bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction nearly impossible, removing our options for deficit reduction for a plan that won't reduce the deficit by one penny" Hensarling said in statement released after the speech. "It's not the role of this committee to spend more money we don't have on jobs we don't get."

But Democrats largely praised the plan. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said the speech hit just the right tone.

"He didn't go for the sun, the moon and the stars, but he challenged us to rise above partisan politics and do something for a suffering country right now. And that's what a leader does," Connolly said.

Deficit-wary lawmakers like freshman Republican Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., heard the president's talk about rebuilding America with a national infrastructure bank and jump-starting "thousands of transportation projects around the country" and saw more money going down the drain.

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"We already tried the shovel-ready project list that didn't, by the president's own admission, didn't exactly turn out to be quite shovel ready," Huizenga said.

Huizenga also said he's also concerned about the president's proposal to extend and expand the payroll tax cut, which would mean tax breaks for individuals and small businesses but less money going into Social Security and Medicare.

"We need to understand that there's long-term ramifications in the Social Security and Medicare, which are dedicated funds, that those payroll deductions go to," Huizenga said. "We can't eat our cake and eat it too on this. We can't be complaining that Social Security is underfunded and then do additional things to continue that under funding."

But Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said he thinks expanding the payroll tax credit to some employers is one proposal that actually has a chance of passing since Republicans favor tax cuts.

"I mean, that's the kind of thing they love," Cummings said. "He has really put them on the spot. They got to say why they are not helping their constituents with their own ideas. And something that's paid for."

Speaker John Boehner put out a statement that did not endorse any specific proposals, but left the door open for Congress and the White House to continue to seek common ground.

"The proposals the President outlined tonight merit consideration," he said. "We hope he gives serious consideration to our ideas as well. It's my hope that we can work together to end the uncertainty facing families and small businesses, and create a better environment for long-term economic growth and private-sector job creation."

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[polisigh]

The Tea Party, Boehner and Cantor have a weird concept of compromise:they agree to accept everything they want and to reject anything they oppose. Talking points and bleached teeth do not mean that the Tea Party knows how to govern. A whole bunch of unprincipled extremists committed to power and money-making.

[Ericwvb]

We keep getting the same plan from both sides of the aisle: spend hundreds of billions of dollars and pay the bill with tax cuts. Here's my plan: jack up the income tax rates to 90% for those making $1 million and more, and 50% for those making more than $250K. For every percentage point the unemployment rate drops below 1%, those rates go down. Maybe that will "incentivize" our "job creators" to create some jobs in the USA instead of shipping them off to India and China.

[Unsilent_Majority]

RangerDan...I never said we shouldn't fix infrastructure. What I did say is that infrastructure jobs won't stimulate the economy. Yes, they will certainly help out of work families for a period of time, but those type jobs won't help grow the economy. And as for public sector jobs being lost, that is not necessaily a bad thing. Public sector jobs burden the tax base, they don't help stimulate economic growth. Teachers should be employed/re-hired in districts where they are needed. But don't tell me we should hire teachers all over the place at taxpayers expense simply to say we're reducing the unemployment rate. Thats called taking from Peter to pay Paul. As for firemen, most firemen in this country are volunteer. in the larger cities, yes hire them if needed but not simply for saying "you created a job". Same is true with policeman. Besides, in my town we have 16 police officers all of who make in excess of $100k a year when you factor in their overtime. Public servants should not be compensated at that rate.

[bigdon22]

Give it a chance people, it beats standing Pat.

[RangerDan107]

2happy2ride - that's an easy one to explain. Bush did it! He created this mess and then ran for the hills. What, did you think that Obama created this mess in the last two and a half years? Hahahaha, please, the only ones that believe that hogwash are unfortunately allowed to vote although they can barely tie their shoes. The problem is, there are a lot of these dimwits.

[RangerDan107]

I guess we have to let them vote, but I'd rather give them some crayons and paper, and tell them to be quiet while us smart people decide how to run this country.

[imnotimportant]

It's time to turn to the man with the plan, BUSH.

By the way where is this economic Einstein?
Where is this dynamic leader? This Compassionate Conservatives Leader?

Where is Bush?

Why isn't he out supporting his fellow candidates? Why isn't he defending and advocating his triumphant tax cuts? The ones that helped balance the budget.

Why isn't he defending and advocating his triumphant jobs creation record? The one that has brought overwhelming prosperity to the United States.

Is it because standing beside him causes others to become embarrassed?

[vpcharan]

To the pessimists at large and Greedy Old Pigs (GOP) in particular, imagine your loved one has been diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease and the attending physician recommends a treatment option. Would you be rooting for the failure or success? Would you refuse doctors advise because your faith/ideology tells you that the treatment won't work or would you at least try with the hope that the treatment might save your loved ones life?

[Unsilent_Majority]

I agree that infrastructure jobs certainly present the potential to put lots of people to work. But here's the problem...1st off, those jobs do not present career opportunities. They are simply projects of a fixed duration. And once the project is complete, so too is the job. 2nd, people argue that improved infrastructure will lead to increased jobs in the commercial and industrial sector. The problem with that argument is that of all the reasons businesses give for moving overseas, a crumbling U.S. infrastructure is not one of them. So if the infrastructure needs to be fixed because it presents a danger to those of us who rely upon it, then yes go ahead and fix it. But do not think that new highways, bridges, and tunnels will result in an increase in manufacturing and distribution here at home.

[RangerDan107]

How else do you propose to fix our infrastructure? All construction jobs essentially have an "end". His plan also encompasses putting over a quarter of a million teachers, firemen, and cops back to work. Republicans say government should not be in the business of creating jobs, well who the hell do teachers, firemen, and cops work for? The public sector is where most of the job loss is coming from right now. Businesses have started to hire again, but the public sector job loss is so huge that private business can't keep up.

[signseeker1717]

Not all jobs are or can be "career opportunities". Even a short term position helps families keep their heads above water, and puts more exprience and skills on the resume. Employers are more likely to hire some one who has worked a short term job than some one who has been on unemployment. A short term job is ALWAYS better than NO job.

[RangerDan107]

I liked his plan, except it didn't go far enough. I suppose because the republicans would have said "NO" again. What I would like to have seen is a return to the CCC's (Civilian Conservation Corp)of the 1930's. These were job's created by the feds to employ the chronically unemployed. They created much of the infrastructure you see in federal, and municipal parks. I would like to see two years mandatory "service to America" for high school graduates. It's not necessarily the military, but can be a job working on fixing other problems in our country: Below is a list of countries that already do this:
- Austria

- Greece

- Singapore

- Brazil

- Israel

- South Korea

- Bulgaria

- Lebanon

- Sweden

- China

- Malaysia

- Switzerland

- Croatia

- Norway

- Taiwan

- Eritrea

- Poland

- Turkey

- Finland

- Romania

- Venezuela

- Germany

- Russia

We have a huge problem with unemployment for the young. Where is this solution?

[imnotimportant]

Good Post.

Please post more often.

[jt92202]

One of the solutions could be, allow our youth to work on the farms again!!! Unless they are the children of the farm owner our kids are not allowed to pick berries or other produce, these jobs were given to the migrante worker. I live in WA State and I picked berries as a teenager but today that is not allowed! Also jobs at Fast Food places were given to 16+ teenagers and 20 somethings but now they don't like to hire these people any longer. They still do but at a lot smaller hiring rate, these jobs tend to go to stay at home moms or unskilled adults.

[commenter777]

Fox news supports the elite-rich republican interests. Fox news is the enemy of the middle-class. I have never seen a more one-sided commentary as Fox news had after Obama's speech. There were only commentators that were pro elite-rich republicans. There were no democrats giving commentary. News should be impartial and bi-partisan but Fox news is one-sided and trys to sway the news to be pro-ultra rich republican interests. If you're middle-class we need to understand that there is dirty politics going on and the middle-class needs to not let the weasel republicans make us go against our only hope, which is President Obama.

[RangerDan107]

Let's remember who owns Fox. It's a foreigner, none other than Rupert Murdoch! You know, the crook behind the illegal cell phone hacking going on in Europe at present. Imagina that, a criminal, liar, thief, telling us how we should live our lives so that it makes him richer. Hey Rupert, you're getting pretty stinkin old. You're probably gonna croak fairly soon. You better get your empathy hat on, and pretend you care about the poor in our world, so you can fool God and get into heaven.