President sends American Jobs Act to Congress
President Obama on Monday sent Congress his American Jobs Act, a $447 billion proposal aimed at putting “people back to work all across the country.”
“This is the bill that will help our economy in a moment of national crisis,” Obama said, according to a transcript of his remarks. “This is a bill that is based on ideas from both Democrats and Republicans. And this is the bill that Congress needs to pass. No games. No politics. No delays. I'm sending this bill to Congress today, and they ought to pass it immediately.”
The president added that the measure “is not going to add to the debt — it's fully paid for. I want to repeat that. It is fully paid for.”
However, one Georgia Republican doesn't believe the proposal will work as intended.
“Unfortunately, his remarks today and last week indicate that the legislation is going to be eerily similar to the failed stimulus policies of last Congress,” U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., said in a statement.
“Two years ago, President Obama requested that a then-Democrat Congress join him in spending a trillion dollars in order to keep unemployment below 8 percent. In August of this year, the economy created no net new jobs and unemployment remained at 9.1 percent,” Price added. “It's difficult to see what in this latest proposal by the President would assure the American people his ideas will work this time around.”
FROM THE TRANSCRIPT:
And the American Jobs Act is not going to add to the debt — it's fully paid for. I want to repeat that. It is fully paid for. (Laughter.) It's not going to add a dime to the deficit.
