WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama goes before a skeptical Congress on Thursday with an economic plan aimed at creating jobs urgently and forcing Republicans to own the problem with him.
The underlying political strategy is that if Obama can’t get his ideas passed heading into his re-election year, he at least hopes to show why he shouldn’t take the fall.
Obama is likely to offer at least a $300 billion package of ideas that includes tax relief, unemployment insurance, spending to support construction jobs and aid to states. Businesses would get their own tax breaks. And he will promise a plan to pay for it all.
Meanwhile, a new Pew Research Center poll finds that majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents doubt that Obama’s proposals would do a lot to create jobs.
