President Obama traveled to Columbus, Ohio, House Speaker John Boehner's home state, where he pushed Congress to pass his new jobs creation bill. He met with students at Fort Hayes Art and Academic High School before speaking to a few hundred people on school grounds about his plan to refurbish schools and employ teachers in his $447 billion plan to jumpstart the economy.
“We’ll cut what we can’t afford to pay for what we really need,” Obama said.
The President sent his legislation to Congress Monday, which revealed more detail about the plan. White House Budget Director Jack Lew said closing corporate tax "loopholes" and limiting deductions and tax breaks for couples making more than $250,000 per year will raise $400 billion over ten years, nearly the cost of the entire jobs plan.
“We got to make sure everyone pays their fair share, including the wealthiest Americans and corporations," Obama told the crowd in Ohio.
In a letter to Congress that accompanied the text of the bill, the President wrote that if the "super committee" includes spending cuts to include the cost of the jobs bill, his tax proposals to pay for the bill could be replaced. That means the "super committee" would have to cut beyond the $1.2 trillion dollar mandate.
The American Jobs Act would provide tax cuts to small businesses, fund transportation and broadband infrastructure projects, extend unemployment benefits and provide money to states for teacher and public safety salaries.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) spoke at an the American Action economic forum today and, according to media reports, he criticized Pres. Obama's tax plans to pay for the jobs bill; he also rebuked any insistence that the proposal is passed as a whole. He and House Speaker John Boehner said they want the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office to assess the cost and impact of the bill.
This week, the House of Representatives begins voting on the Republican job creation proposal. The first of ten votes is to eliminate a National Labor Relations Board regulation that restricts companies from transferring jobs out of state. The Republican proposal focuses on cutting taxes and cutting regulations.