Obama: ‘Pass this jobs plan’

Reduce it by more, he said.

As part of his plan to pay for his proposal, Obama has asked the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to increase the amount it will cut from the deficit over the next decade to $1.95 trillion.

The idea didn’t fly with Portman, R-Ohio, who said Obama was “abdicating responsibility in paying for his plans” by pushing that responsibility to the so-called supercommittee.

But in a roughly 30-minute speech before a divided Congress, Obama said the package is needed to “provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled.” He challenged lawmakers to “pass this jobs plan right away.”

The sweeping proposal would include $175 billion in tax cuts for individuals and $100 billion for high-speed rail, repairing or building roads and bridges and modernizing 35,000 schools across the nation, according to White House officials. Among the projects Obama directly cited in his speech was the Brent Spence Bridge, a bridge connecting Cincinnati to northern Kentucky.

Obama’s plan also would sharply reduce the 6.2 percent payroll tax paid by workers and companies to finance Social Security.

For the past year, as part of an effort by Obama and Congress to stimulate the economy, workers have only paid 4.2 percent. Under Obama’s new plan, a worker for the next year would pay just 3.1 percent, which one White House official characterized as the equivalent of a raise for as many as 160 million people.

The president also wants a payroll-tax reduction of 1.2 percent for all small companies that add jobs or raise wages.

Finally, the plan included $35 billion to help local communities re-hire teachers and first responders.

Obama promised the plan would be fully paid for, providing that the supercommittee increases the amount it cuts over the next decade. He said he will follow his jobs plan with a “more-ambitious deficit plan” a week from Monday — “a plan that will not only cover the cost of this jobs bill, but stabilize our debt in the long run.” He said that plan would reform the tax code and adjust entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid.

A skeptical Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus, said: “You can’t just say it’s paid for and then it’s paid for. There is nothing in this bill that is paid for, and that’s my biggest concern.”

But Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the plan “will create and protect jobs and ensure that Ohio workers take home more of their pay.” He said “there are no excuses for inaction,” because all components of his plan have had bipartisan support.

Still, it’s clear that Republicans, including those in the region’s congressional delegation, have deep reservations about Obama’s plan.

Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, called the speech “odd.”

“I just found it really bizarre that he was willing to pass the buck that way and not identify cuts for his own spending,” he said. “It lacked leadership in many ways.”

But House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, offered something of an olive branch, saying Obama’s ideas “merit consideration.”

“We hope he gives serious consideration to our ideas as well,” he said.

Among those hesitant about the plan was Portman, who met formally yesterday with members of the supercommittee for the first time. The committee, established as part of an August agreement to raise the debt ceiling, must present a plan to Congress by Thanksgiving or face mandatory cuts to discretionary programs.

Portman said Obama’s speech included the “same failed policies the president has proposed in the past — more government spending and more government involvement.”

Obama’s plan faces considerable hurdles: It will go before a Republican-led House that has been consistently resistant to his legislative proposals and that only looks likely to become more resistant as the 2012 presidential election approachs. The Senate, meanwhile, has a Democratic majority, but it’s too slim a majority to resist a Republican filibuster.

But yesterday, it became clear that Obama also hopes to win over a public that has recently indicated through polls that it’s increasingly disenchanted with his leadership on economic issues.

Obama threw a haymaker at Republicans who have called for decreased regulation, saying while every rule should meet the “common-sense test,” he would not “let this economic crisis be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades.”

“I reject the idea that we need to ask people to choose between their jobs and their safety,” he said. “I reject the argument that says for the economy to grow, we have to roll back protections that ban hidden fees by credit-card companies, or rules that keep our kids from being exposed to mercury, or laws that prevent the health-insurance industry from shortchanging patients.”

Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief Jack Torry contributed to this story.