This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 9, 2011 - WASHINGTON - Facing flat-line employment reports and Republican challenges to his leadership, President Barack Obama appealed to a joint session of Congress on Thursday evening to put aside partisan differences and pass a $447 billion plan to help create jobs and start turning around the economy.
"The question is whether, in the face of an ongoing national crisis, we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy; whether we can restore some of the fairness and security that has defined this nation since our beginning," Obama said. He told lawmakers: "You should pass this jobs plan right away."
Instead of outlining his plans at a factory or a worker gathering, Obama upped the ante by deciding to address a joint session of Congress as a way to appeal for bipartisanship -- and appeal for an end to what the White House views as GOP obstructionism -- to tackle the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate and deeply troubled economy.
A fired-up Obama was interrupted about 40 times by applause during the half-hour speech. His proposal, the American Jobs Act, would "put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working," he said. Repeating the phrase "pass this jobs bill" like a mantra, the president outlined an initiative that includes tax cuts, infrastructure spending and aid to states and schools. He aimed his remarks as much to independent viewers of the speech as to skeptical GOP lawmakers.
"It will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more jobs for the long-term unemployed," Obama said. By "cut[ting] payroll taxes in half" for working people and small businesses, he contended that the plan "will provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled, and give companies confidence that if they invest and hire, there will be customers for their products and services."
Republican reaction to the speech was wide ranging. Some condemned Obama's plan as "Stimulus II" -- a reference to the 2009 economic stimulus plan, which they regard as an expensive failure -- while others said they might support some parts of the package, such as payroll tax cuts and targeted spending on transportation infrastructure.
"I hope there are some areas we can agree on," U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Az., told CNN after the speech. Speaking before the address, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said that Obama may have made a mistake by presenting the plan to a joint session of Congress -- raising expectations. Blunt suggested that a 10-month Obama embargo on new federal regulations "would be a step that Republicans would endorse." But Obama, while saying he had ordered a review of all regulations, also defended many of them as essential.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said that "some parts of the president's proposal should receive quick, bipartisan action, like tax reform, trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama and enactment of regulatory relief for businesses" However, Kirk said he "looked forward to learning the specifics" of what cuts would be made elsewhere to pay for the jobs initiative. "In the detail provided tonight, the president proposed $447 billion in new spending but provided no details on how to pay for it."
Some House Republicans said they were surprised by Obama's tone, which they said seemed political and preachy. "He came in there with a chip on his shoulder and kept telling us what to do," said Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth. He and others said they were willing to examine parts of the jobs proposal, but that the overall cost of the plan seemed high unless other budget cuts can be found to pay for it.
Obama's options have been limited by last month's deficit-reduction deal that severely restricts additional federal spending. For that reason, Obama called on the new congressional "super committee," which is trying to reach a deficit-reduction plan by December, to go further than its goal of $1.2 trillion in savings over a decade and find ways to make additional cuts to pay for the jobs package, estimated at $447 billion.
With 14 months to go before the election, allies said Obama needed to project leadership Thursday and instill confidence that his administration can turn around the economy. "We have got to do something, and the president challenged Congress to work together to do it," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. "I hope some Republicans will step up and join us."
While Durbin said some Republicans gave the speech a cool reception, he said all lawmakers know it would be difficult to balance the U.S. budget with 14 million Americans out of work. "I think this could make a difference," Durbin told reporters after the speech. "What's the alternative? The president made it clear that if we don't tackle this American Jobs Act, if we don't pass this now, we are not going to turn this economy around. And people are going to continue to be out of work and we are going to continue to face economic problems."
While most Democrats seemed to support the overall plan, there were different degrees of enthusiasm. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said, "If there's one message I hope Congress left with tonight, it's that putting more folks back to work is more important than who's going to win the next election."
In a statement, McCaskill said that "we can keep creating more jobs with some commonsense ideas -- more efficient job skills training, a crackdown on unfair trade practices that put our companies at a disadvantage, guarding against any excessive regulation, and making sure our small businesses have the tools needed to succeed."
The Missouri senator added: "The devil is in the details, and I'll be taking a hard look at the president's ideas in the next few days. But the bottom line is that Congress must come together and compromise to tackle this challenge."
Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, who talked with local business and labor leaders in a conference call shortly before the president's speech, says his constituents want action. "This economy is growing slowly and unevenly, and many families and businesses in St. Louis are really hurting," he said. Carnahan urged Obama to appeal to Americans to "come together to do the hard work of the nation and dig us out of this economic hole."
By laying down a challenge to congressional Republicans to pass or reject a specific jobs plan, Obama set the groundwork -- if Congress fails to act -- to frame the 2012 presidential race in terms of a frustrated Obama thwarted by obstructionist Republicans. Some have suggested that Obama try to take a page from Missourian Harry S Truman, who made an appeal to a joint session of Congress in July 1948 as part of his reelection campaign against a "do-nothing" Republican Congress.
Presidential historian Robert Dallek told the Washington Post that Truman's tactic -- knowing full well that Republicans were unlikely to take action as the election approached -- "strengthened his ability to attack them as the do-nothing Congress." And Carnahan told a St. Louis group on Thursday that he wanted to see "a lot of 'give-em'-hell Harry'" spirit in Obama's speech.
But Obama, while free to criticize the GOP, would be hard pressed to pin the entire blame on a paralyzed Congress, given that the Senate -- which arguably has taken far less action than the Republican-led House -- is controlled by Democrats.
Blunt, who occupies Truman's old Senate office, scoffs at the notion that the logjam in Congress can be blamed on Republicans. And Rep. Todd Akin, R-Wildwood, told the Beacon Thursday that the House can't be blamed for "refusing to rubber-stamp a flawed agenda." Noting that the Senate had not even approved a budget last year, he asked: "Who's being obstructionist? The House is at least putting together a budget."
Room for Compromise on Jobs?
While some of Obama's proposals seemed likely to run into tough opposition from Republicans, there appeared to be some room for compromise.
At the labor and business ends of the political spectrum, the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce jobs proposals have little overlap, they both agree that reauthorizing the massive federal transportation programs would help.
Lawmakers tended to respond along party lines to Obama's proposal on jobs and the economy. But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio -- whose Tweets typically add the adjectives "job-killing" descriptions Obama initiatives -- and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., sent a letter to Obama recently that outlined some area of possible bipartisan cooperation. "Republicans and Democrats don't agree on everything, but we are not going let differences get in the way of common sense solutions," Cantor said.
In general, reaction to Obama's jobs proposals tended to follow party lines, with Democrats favoring infrastructure, payroll deduction and unemployment benefit extensions, while Republicans wanted fewer federal regulations and more tax breaks.
Durbin, who invited Illinois AFL-CIO president Michael T. Carrigan as his guest at the joint session, has focused on transportation legislation as a key element of jobs creation. That's also a priority of Reps. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, and Carnahan, who said the federal highway program supports about 15,000 jobs in Missouri.
Clay called Obama's jobs proposals "a common sense plan that will put millions of Americans back to work. It is based on good ideas that both Democrats and Republicans have supported previously."
Contending that "the American people have run out of patience," Clay challenged GOP leaders to act. "My Republican friends in the House majority have a simple choice ... they can either put their country first, or they can engage in more partisan nonsense."
For his part, Akin warned that Obama's plan sounded ominously like a new version of the 2009 economic stimulus plan, which Akin called "an unmitigated disaster" because it was costly and failed to create enough jobs. "My concern is that we not make the same mistake that we made before" with a similar approach.
"We're way over-spending, and [Obama] wants to squander more money," Akin said. "If he really wanted to get the economy going, he should stop the 'red tape machine'" of regulations planned to be implemented by his administration. "But I don't think he's going to do that."
Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, said he supported Obama's "call for increased investment in our country's infrastructure. We absolutely need to maintain and improve our nation's roads, bridges, airports, railways and ports. Every $1 billion spent on infrastructure creates more than 34,000 jobs and $6.1 billion in economic activity."
Asserting the Obama had "mishandled the economy," Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, said in a statement that she appreciated the president's job creation goals but that "until there is proof that the Obama administration is back in touch with the realities faced by working Americans in communities struggling to keep and create private-sector jobs, we will not be able to move forward to solve these problems."
Luetkemeyer told the Beacon after the speech that, even though some House Republicans resented Obama's "arrogant approach" in his speech, there might be some areas that both sides can agree on -- assuming that those initiative are paid for by budget cuts.
"There are some things that we can support," such as approving free-trade pacts and reforming Medicare, Luetkemeyer said. "But we've seen some of these proposals before, and we need to know how things are going to be paid for."
Among the dozens of endorsements of Obama's jobs plan that the White House emailed to journalists late Thursday was a statement from St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.
"There are the words that every mayor in America wants to hear from the federal government: education, innovation, and infrastructure," Slay said. "President Obama used these words tonight to explain how our country is going to replace jobs, create opportunities, and spur economic growth. ...¦ I will be on my telephone with some of our biggest andsmallest companies telling them that I think the tools President Obama has promised will let them start hiring again, that government will not be in their way."Robert Koenig Beacon Washington correspondent