President Obama To Present Jobs Package To Congress, Nation; Bloomberg Says President Must Instill Confidence
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- With millions of Americans out of work and out of patience, President Barack Obama is going before a skeptical Congress to pitch an economic plan aimed at creating jobs urgently and forcing Republicans to own the problem with him.
In his speech Thursday, Obama is likely to offer at least a $300 billion package of ideas that would affect people in their daily lives like tax relief, unemployment insurance, spending to support construction jobs, aid to states to keep people in their jobs. Businesses would get their own tax breaks. And he will promise a long-term plan to pay for it all.
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White House chief of staff Bill Daley says the American people are demanding that something be done to address persistent unemployment and that with Congress' summer break over, lawmakers must "do something and not say no to everything.''
Daley said the president's American Job Act will be formally introduced next week.
As the president addresses the nation Thursday evening, he'll have a tough critic in New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Bloomberg says it's the president's job to instill confidence in the American people.
"He's got to explain to the public why it's time to stop this partisanship and this bickering," said Bloomberg.
The mayor says there are two undeniable problems both sides of the aisle must address.
"One is keep the deficit from bankrupting us, which it's going to do at the current course," he said. "And number two, we cannot stand the kind of unemployment that we have, some of which has gone on for a very long time."
Bloomberg says we've got to stop looking at the downside and find ways to give the kind of confidence to the business world to make loans, take loans and expand and create jobs.
Obama is expected to speak for up to 45 minutes, beginning at 7 p.m. EDT. CBSNewYork.com will be carrying be the president's speech live.
What do you think the president needs to address in his speech? Sound off below in our comments section...
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