President Obama met today at the White House with a number of Republican and Democratic leaders to whip up support for the Administration’s jobs plan.
Obama said the the bi-partisan meeting built on some of the ideas that he articulated in his economic speech yesterday, as well as, proposals emerging from the Job Forum held last week at the White House.
Noting that the economy is in a very different place now that when he took office, the President said that the Recovery Act and the several other initiatives undertaken had pulled the economy back from the abyss.
“It’s no secret that there’s been less than full bipartisan support for the Recovery Act and some of the steps that have broken the freefall of our economy,” the President said in a statement. But he said that it was appropriate for him to meet with leaders today of both parties as, “spurring hiring and economic growth are not Democratic or Republican issues”. But he said, it was his hope that both parties could move forward together as theirs was a shared responsibility to meet “our economic challenges on behalf of all Americans.”
Although the economy has been stabilized, the President referenced the fact that times are tough when the “best jobs report in two years still shows a loss of 11,000 jobs”.
In his statement, the President underscored the fact that small businesses are the engines that drive much of the hiring in the economy, hence several proposals had been outlined to encourage the expansion of small business. These included, the elimination of the capital gains taxes on small business investment and creation of a tax incentive for encouraging small businesses to add and keep workers.
The President also referenced other proposals aimed at enchancing job creation, including additional investment in infrastructure, beyond what was included in the Recovery Act; temporary incentives for consumers to buy materials for retrofitting their homes for energy efficiency; and extension of emergency relief to states, senior and citizens who need it most.
Obama stressed that he remained committed to working with anybody who is willing to do the job to rebuild the U.S. economy, regardless of political persuasion, so that Americans could have the opportunities that are expected in the country.
