Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Obama says may have to ‘break up’ jobs bill

President Barack Obama said today he could "break up" his jobs bill to push it through Congress, acknowledging the risk that the legislation may fail to advance as the US Senate prepared to vote on the plan.

The Democratic president was in Pittsburgh as part of a campaign to get lawmakers to pass his $447 billion proposal.

It is the latest stop in a tour of swing states in advance of next year's election to raise pressure on Republicans resisting big chunks of the jobs bill.

"If they don't pass the whole package we're going to break it up into constituent parts," Obama told a meeting of his Jobs Council. The chief of state was scheduled later to deliver remarks on the economy and the importance of passing the job plan.

Republicans say Obama's visit to a swing state like Pennsylvania was more about campaigning to keep his own job in next year's election than fighting for American workers who are struggling with unemployment stuck above 9 percent since May.

Obama's council of top US bosses, under the chairmanship of GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt, delivered a report in which they proposed steps to foster US innovation and make the country more attractive to foreign investment.

But many of the report's recommendations would require support from Republicans to become law – a potentially tall order in a divided Congress in which Republicans control the House of Representatives and Democrats hold the Senate.

"There are certain ideas that are contained in this Jobs Council report that historically have received bipartisan support ... We can't wait for another election to start moving forward on these ideas," Obama said.

Obama's 2012 re-election chances depend heavily on his ability to spur the sluggish economic recovery and revive a nearly stagnant job market.

The US president launched the jobs bill last month to persuade Americans that he had a plan to get them back to work. But the bill was headed for likely defeat in the Senate as his Democrats were expected to fall short of the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle.

White House National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling said the Senate vote later on today would highlight how the Republicans were being obstructionist despite a public weary of high unemployment.

However, he made clear the Obama administration's fallback option would be to offer the jobs plan piecemeal.

"If they (Republicans) choose not to give the support that will allow this to get 60 votes, if they choose to do that, then we'll come back piece after piece," he told CNBC news.

Despite a month of high-profile lobbying by the president, the bill could fail to get even a simple 50-vote majority in the chamber. Such an outcome would be an embarrassing setback for Obama's top legislative priority.