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Washington - President Barack Obama, seeking to rescue the
troubled US economy and his own prospects for reelection, embarks on an uphill
battle on Friday to win Republican support for a make-or-break $447bn jobs plan.
The proposals, heavily weighted toward tax cuts for workers
and businesses, were carefully crafted to appeal to middle class voters who
gravitate towards the political centre.
A day after unveiling his ideas on Capitol Hill, Obama will
pitch them directly to Americans on Friday as he visits Virginia in the
kick-off to a months-long campaign to promote the package.
The White House sees the plan - a mix of payroll tax cuts
and spending to upgrade roads, bridges and school buildings - as the best hope
for reducing the 9.1% unemployment rate that threatens Obama's presidency and
addressing what he called a "national crisis".
Obama hopes he can rally enough popular support to pressure
Republicans to get behind his plan, despite their vehement opposition to most
of his agenda.
"The next election is 14 months away," Obama told
a rare joint session of Congress. "And the people who sent us here - the
people who hired us to work for them - they don't have the luxury of waiting 14
months."
Tax cuts yes, infrastructure no
But analysts were cautious, despite some initial signals on
Thursday night from Republican congressional leaders of a willingness to find
common ground on the plan.
"A deal with some tax cuts is doable," said Greg
Valliere, an analyst at the Potomac Research Group, which advises investors on
politics. But he sees little prospect of Republicans backing significant
spending on infrastructure that is part of Obama's plan.
With debt and deficit reduction as their top issue,
Republicans have derided Obama's 2009 stimulus package as wasteful and reject
"Keynesian"” short-term fiscal measures to boost the economy.
Financial markets reacted coolly to the speech. In Asia, the
dollar eased against a basket of currencies and US Treasuries slipped.
At the heart of the plan is a proposal to extend and deepen
a payroll tax cut for workers that passed last December. Obama would also cut
payroll taxes for businesses, offering the most generous breaks to small firms
and those hiring new workers.
Obama also said his administration was working to try to
throw a lifeline to the ailing housing market by broadening access to
refinancing for US homeowners.
Obama's aides could take some encouragement from statements
issued by House of Representatives speaker John Boehner and Republican leader Eric
Cantor, who spent much of the last year locked in bitter combat with the White
House.
Recession fears
Boehner said Obama's ideas "merit consideration".
Cantor, whose state Obama will visit on Friday, said the payroll tax cuts were
"something that will be a part of the discussions".
While not an endorsement, the statements were also a far cry
from a declaration of "dead on arrival" that many expected would
greet Obama's plan.
Bleak unemployment figures and other recent data have raised
fears the economy could slide into another recession.
While the economy's woes have sent Obama's popularity
tumbling to new lows, Republicans are well aware they could suffer political
fallout too if Obama succeeds in painting them as obstructionists in the effort
to fix the jobs problem.
Christopher Arterton, a political science professor at
George Washington University, said Obama succeeded in putting himself
"back at the centre of the debate on the future of the country" - one
of his more immediate challenges.
Republicans have hammered Obama for months over what they
viewed as weak leadership on the economy. And in a grim sign for the
president's reelection prospects, Democrats have increasingly begun to sour on
his economic stewardship too.
The unexpectedly large $447bn price tag for Obama's jobs
plan was welcomed by powerful constituencies such as labour unions, whose
support Obama needs in his reelection drive.
The package and the feisty tone in Obama's speech were
welcomed by Richard Trumka, president of the influential AFL-CIO labour
federation, who sat with first lady Michelle Obama in her box during the speech.
Trumka said afterwards that the president had made clear he
was "willing to go to the mat to create new jobs on a substantial
scale".
