With Republicans killing prospects for a comprehensive jobs bill, the White House is planning a fall strategy it hopes will wrangle enough GOP votes for a package some economists say would add as many as 1.9 million jobs to a sagging economy — at least temporarily.
The White House's new 60-day legislative-political strategy is designed to pressure Republicans in Obama-friendly districts to support his proposed $447 billion jobs bill and accompanying tax increases — or face blame at home heading into the 2012 election year.
To drive the strategy, Obama will go on the road more this fall, presumably to many of those Republican districts, rather than sitting at a negotiating table in Washington as he did this summer for weeks with congressional Republicans.
The need for a Plan B was evident Monday as House Republicans said flatly that they won't approve the entire jobs bill as Obama has demanded.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., told reporters the entire package is dead in the House. The measure includes extension and expansion of a one-year payroll tax cut, extension of unemployment benefits, and cash for public works projects.
"The president continues to say, 'Pass my bill in its entirety,'" Cantor said. "The outset, the all-or-nothing approach is just unacceptable."
OK Republicans, you want to block the American Jobs Act? It's going to cost you your jobs next November. Time to call your Representative's office and raise some hell, folks. Time to make the House GOP so nervous they fold, and only we can make that happen.
House Switchboard operator: (202) 224-
[UPDATE] Ezra Klein: The American Jobs Act is dead.
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