Obama urges new jobs spending

By Tom Raum

Associated Press

President Barack Obama called for a major new burst of federal spending Tuesday, aiming to jolt the wobbly economy into a stronger recovery and reduce painfully persistent double-digit unemployment.

Despite Republican criticism concerning record federal deficits, Obama said the U.S. must continue to “spend our way out of this recession” as long as so many people are out of work.

More than 7 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began two years ago, and the jobless rate stands at 10 percent, a statistic Obama called “staggering.”

Congressional approval would be required for the new spending, the amount unspecified but sure to be at least tens of billions of dollars.

“We avoided the depression many feared,” Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But, he added, “Our work is far from done.”

It was the third time in a week the president had presided over a high-profile event on jobs, responding to rising pleas in Congress that he spend more time discussing unemployment as midterm elections draw near.

Republicans ridiculed the president’s speech and his parallel call for doing more to hold down government deficits.

“At least the president’s proposal will result in one new job — he’ll need to hire a magician to make this new deficit spending appear fiscally responsible,” said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.

House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio declared the president “out of ideas and out of touch.”

To find money to pay for the new programs, the administration is pointing to the Treasury Department’s report on Monday that it expects to get back $200 billion in taxpayer-approved bank bailout funds faster than expected.

Obama suggested this windfall would help the government spend money on job creation at the same time it eats into the nation’s debt, which now totals $12 trillion.