Obama pitches jobs bill, GOP wants less red tape

JIM KUHNHENN

The Associated Press

October 1, 2011

WASH­INGTON (AP) — Pres­ident Barack Obama and his House Re­publican adversaries feuded over how to best cre­ate jobs in the weak­ened U.S. econ­o­my Sat­urday, with Obama de­manding Congress pass his $447 billion jobs bill and the GOP coun­tering with a call for less govern­ment red tape.
Both efforts face lit­tle chance of success as all-or-noth­ing propos­als in the di­vided leg­is­la­ture.
The Sen­ate, which is con­trolled by Democrats, has yet to take up Obama's leg­is­lation.
The pres­ident has been mount­ing a steady public campaign on behalf of his bill, cast­ing       

Congress — and Re­publicans in partic­ular — as obstacles. With a populist flair, Obama has been barnstorm­ing across the country to prod Congress, so far to no avail.

"It is time for Congress to get its act togeth­er and pass this jobs bill so I can sign it into law," he said in his weekly ra­dio and Inter­net address Sat­urday.
In the Re­publican address, Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., made a pitch for leg­is­lation in the House that would reduce reg­ulatory require­ments on busi­nesses. He cited rules af­fecting ce­ment plants and re­strictions on in­stitution­al boil­ers as examples of govern­ment overreach­ing.
"For years, ex­cessive reg­u­lations have been a source of frus­tration for busi­nesses trying to stay afloat," he said.
            

"Pres­ident Obama, who has said he's will­ing to consid­er stopping ex­cessive reg­u­lations, should call on the Demo­crat-led Sen­ate to fol­low the House in pass­ing these jobs bills," he said.
Obama's public approval ratings have held steady in the low 40 per­cent, but the public's as­sess­ment of his han­dling of the econ­o­my           

has been signif­icantly lower. Obama has been trying to deflect responsibility to con­gres­sion­al Re­publicans, who togeth­er with con­gres­sion­al Democrats fare much worse than the pres­ident.

Obama's propos­al would cut payroll taxes for workers and for busi­nesses, lengthen job­less ben­efits, spend on public works projects and pay local and state govern­ments to keep teach­ers, po­lice and fire­fight­ers on the job. He has proposed paying for the leg­is­lation with tar­geted tax increases — lim­its on deductions tak­en by wealth­i­er taxpayers, clos­ing corporate loop­holes and ending oil and gas sub­si­dies.
Re­publicans have said some of his propos­als, such as the payroll tax cuts, are worth consid­ering. But they object to spending propos­als