Republicans tackle Obama’s jobs plan

Associated Press

President Barack Obama's jobs plan is being criticised by Republicans in Congress, but he is determined to sell the $447-billion proposal while on the road in the coming weeks.

Washington - Republicans in Congress on Tuesday intensified their criticism of President Barack Obama's jobs plan as he hit the road to sell the $447-billion proposal as the best hope to boost the struggling US economy

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New government figures underscored the challenges Obama and US lawmakers face in attempting to trigger growth in a US economy still recovering from the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The Census Bureau said the number of Americans living below the poverty line rose to a record 46-million last year, with the national poverty rate climbing for a third consecutive year to 15.1 percent in 2010.

Obama's plan to bring down a stubbornly high 9.1 percent jobless rate with a package of tax cuts and spending paid for entirely by tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations came under renewed fire from Republicans in Congress.

“What the president's proposed so far is not serious. And it's not a jobs plan,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor. Obama sent the job legislation to Congress on Monday.

Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, was equally sceptical, saying, “I just don't think that is really going to help our economy the way it should.”

Obama hit the road to Columbus, Ohio, in Boehner's political backyard, to sell the plan. It was an opportunity to talk up his proposal in an important battleground state as he looks ahead to what is shaping up to be a difficult battle for re-election in November 2012.