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At one time, opposition parties had to demand air time for responses to presidential speeches given to joint sessions of Congress. Those mainly consisted of State of the Union rebuttals, because Presidents don’t normally ask for joint sessions except to speak on matters of high moment, such as declaration of wars or celebrating the end of them. Now, however, the rebuttal speech has become such a pro forma event that a waiver sends a message all its own (via the Drudge Report): Boehner spokesman Mike Steel said Obama’s proposals on Thursday “will rise or fall on their own merits,” suggesting...

There (sic) decision not to feature a singular response to President Obama's speech on job creation on Thursday shows that Republicans don't expect there to be much to respond to, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Wednesday. "I suspect what it means is that the Speaker does not expect to hear much to respond to," Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said on Fox News. "So far there's no indication that anything extraordinary is going to happen in what should be an extraordinary moment —calling a joint session of Congress to make new economic proposals after you've already been president for two and...

Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Wednesday signaled that Republicans would oppose the $300 billion jobs plan President Obama is expected to unveil Thursday, saying that it would only put the U.S. further in debt at a time when the debt is already weighing on the economy. "There's no doubt in my mind that the debt that we've now incurred is already weakening our economy," Sessions said on the Senate floor. "It comes to a point that you can't keep borrowing in a futile attempt to stimulate the economy when the increased debt itself is weakening the...

<p>Actually, it's understandable. And actually surprising that ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) took this long. She must not be getting out much.</p> <p>Remember way back in 2009 when D.C. Democrats were promising that the $787-billion you-know-what program was going to start you-know-whating the economy almost immediately with those shovel-ready projects that were going to keep unemployment below 8%?</p>

Reporting from Washington— President Obama on Thursday will roll out a jobs package that strives to lift the ailing economy through $300 billion worth of tax credits, school renovation projects, job training for the unemployed and a program to prevent teacher layoffs, according to a person familiar with the administration's plans. In his speech before a joint session of Congress, Obama also will ask lawmakers to renew the 2% payroll tax cut that was approved in December and to extend jobless benefits, said the person, who requested anonymity to talk more freely about White House internal deliberations. The administration would...

We’ve seen this image before: Barack Obama putting the final touches on an important economic speech calling for stimulus spending, job creation, infrastructure investment, assistance to those hit by the housing crisis and an extension of unemployment benefits. As the president prepares to deliver a pivotal address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, it seems like a replay of the economic agenda he outlined when seeking the Democratic nomination. “To put Americans to work, we’ll create millions of new green jobs and invest in rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure,” Obama proclaimed in March 2008. “It’s an agenda that starts...

California voters are increasingly downcast about the direction of the country, but — like their leaders in Washington — many would rather adhere to party orthodoxy than compromise to address the current economic problems, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll shows. The findings offer little guidance for President Obama, who will unveil a jobs package this week that he hopes to push through a polarized Congress. Further troubling for the president: The survey results suggest that Republicans, even in deep-blue California, are winning the rhetorical war of words over how to frame the country's economic troubles, and how to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy weak and the public seething, President Barack Obama is expected to propose $300 billion in tax cuts and federal spending Thursday night to get Americans working again. Republicans offered Tuesday to compromise with him on jobs — but also assailed his plans in advance of his prime-time speech. ... According to people familiar with the White House deliberations, two of the biggest measures in the president's proposals for 2012 are expected to be a one-year extension of a payroll tax cut for workers and an extension of expiring jobless benefits. Together those two would total...

Friday brought two numbers that should have everyone in Washington saying, “My God, what have we done?” One of these numbers was zero — the number of jobs created in August. The other was two — the interest rate on 10-year U.S. bonds, almost as low as this rate has ever gone. Taken together, these numbers almost scream that the inside-the-Beltway crowd has been worrying about the wrong things, and inflicting grievous harm as a result. Ever since the acute phase of the financial crisis ended, policy discussion in Washington has been dominated not by unemployment, but by the alleged...

Dems want Obama's job speech to contrast with GOPBy JIM KUHNHENN AP – 15 hrs ago WASHINGTON (AP) — The tiff over the timing of President Barack Obama's jobs speech to Congress offers little hope that Republicans and the White House will now find common ground on how to reduce the nation's painfully high unemployment. In fact, some Democrats say it's time Obama stopped trying so hard to negotiate. On matters large and small, Obama has yielded to House Speaker John Boehner in a string of concessions that have unnerved Democrats and emboldened Republicans. A chorus of Democratic voices is...

Obama called for $50 billion more in infrastructure spending to rebuild roads, railways and runways -- a proposal that GOP leaders immediately cast as dead-on-arrival. Obama will also pitch a $100 billion proposal Wednesday to increase and make permanent research and development tax credits for businesses. Obama is expected to ask lawmakers to close tax breaks for oil and gas companies and multinational corporations to pay for the plan. The administration is also urging the Senate to pass the small business bill that calls for about $12 billion in tax breaks and a $30 billion fund to help unfreeze lending....

<p>As President Barack Obama prepares to pitch a new jobs plan to Congress, he said Tuesday there are steps the government can take that could add up to a million jobs to the U.S. economy and boost growth by 1.5%.</p>

President Obama’s much-anticipated jobs speech will undoubtedly cover more of the same things that already haven’t not worked. He will propose an infrastructure bank, extension of unemployment and food stamps, promotion of green jobs, more government-corporate partnerships, and a one-year extension of the payroll tax reduction. He’ll advocate a second stimulus. He may be flanked by his jobs commission, headed by the CEO of General Electric, which earlier issued a lame interim jobs report. His speech will not be about jobs. Instead, it will be a campaign speech in disguise. Obama cannot propose a real jobs program. His constituents would...

Aug 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday the U.S. economy needed more stimulus to get it moving, putting in a plug for government measures shortly before the White House unveils new proposals to boost job growth. Concluding a trip to Asia that focused primarily on China, Biden also said a final decision had not been made on whether Washington would sell Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan and noted Beijing knew America viewed its one-child policy as "abhorrent." Reacting to a leadership switch at the top of ratings agency Standard & Poor's after...

Immutable law of Beltway political physics: The only real jobs that a government stimulus stimulates are government jobs. A year after President Obama signed his first almost trillion-dollar economic stimulus package into law, the federal workforce is at an all-time high. The nation's unemployment rate has swelled to 9.7 percent, but Washington's economy is thriving. More than 2.1 million government workers will be on the federal payroll by the end of 2010. The lobbying industry is booming. USA Today reports that 14 federal agencies have hired 3,000 workers to oversee stimulus spending and have spent nearly $190 million so far...

Senate Democrats are working hard behind the scenes to draw Republican support for their first official jobs bill -- a struggle forced upon Democrats by the GOP upset in Massachusetts this month that snatched away their filibuster-proof majority. Negotiations have been ongoing for weeks, as Democrats try to incorporate GOP ideas, like a popular package of tax extenders. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., while not expected to tackle any legislation in his own committee, has been working to get the support of his committee's top Republican, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, as well as other committee Republicans, like Orrin...

President Obama hopes to use money still unspent from the $787-billion economic stimulus plan to fight the nation’s 10% unemployment rate, and one of the ideas on the table is to channel money to states to keep them from laying off public employees. But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% of Americans favor providing federal bailout funds to states with serious financial problems. Fifty-eight percent (58%) oppose giving bailout money to financially troubled states. On top of that, 56% of Americans oppose the passage of another economic stimulus package this year. While House Speaker Nancy...

Costs a burden on businesses While President Obama and congressional leaders say they would like to do more to spur job creation, economists and business executives warn that their plans to impose new health care and climate-change costs on corporations would have the opposite effect. The initiatives, according to this analysis, are likely to overwhelm any positive impact on jobs from stimulus measures by giving businesses a reason to keep laying people off. The House's health care bill would raise the cost of hiring in a straightforward way: by charging businesses a new payroll tax of up to 8 percent...

White House officials and Democratic leaders in Congress on Friday said they were weighing extending key elements of the economic-stimulus program as the nation grapples with a deteriorating job market. Obama administration economists said they would like the enhanced unemployment-insurance program to extend beyond its Dec. 31 expiration date. They also want to maintain a program that offers tax credits to pay 65% of the cost of health insurance policies under the COBRA program, which allows laid-off workers to purchase the health plans they had through their previous employer. White House officials said they also are examining whether to extend...

... With unemployment already at 9.5 percent and likely to exceed 10 percent, much higher than White House officials predicted back in February, Mr. Obama has been facing attacks that his $787 billion stimulus program was either too timid or wrong-headed or both. Now, just five months after Congress agreed on the plan, with only a fraction of the money actually out the door, Washington is debating the need for a second round of stimulus amid economic and political crosscurrents. In Ohio, where unemployment is above 10 percent and where Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will visit on Thursday,...