President Barack Obama, facing waning confidence among Americans in his economic stewardship, plans some $300 billion in tax cuts and government spending as part of a job-creating package, U.S. media reported on Tuesday. The price tag of the proposed package, to be announced by Obama in a nationally televised speech to Congress on Thursday, would be offset by other cuts that the president would outline, CNN reported, citing Democratic sources. Bloomberg News said the plan would inject more than $300 billion into the economy next year through tax cuts, spending on infrastructure, and aid to state and local governments. Obama would offset those short-term costs by calling on Congress to raise tax revenues in a deficit-cutting proposal he will lay out next week, the news agency reported, without citing sources. The White House declined to comment on the reports. Obama's aides have refused to go public with the estimated cost of Obama's package or provide many specifics in advance, except to say that the proposals will have a "quick and positive" impact on boosting jobs at a time of stubbornly high U.S. unemployment. "We need to do things that will have a direct impact in the short-term to grow the economy and create jobs, and the president will put forward proposals that will do just that," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Republicans criticized Obama for not including them in discussions on the package before his big speech and indicated any jobs bills could face tough passage through Congress, where they control the House of Representatives. "I have no doubt the president will propose many things on Thursday that, when looked at individually, sound pretty good, or that he'll call them all bipartisan. I'm equally certain that, taken as whole, they'll represent more of the same failed approach," said the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell. Republican House leaders separately wrote to Obama urging him to repeal "excessive, job-destroying regulations" and laying out possible areas of common ground, including reforms to the unemployment system and free-trade agreements.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/07/us-obama-jobs-idUSTRE78176520110907
