Obama 'to inject $300 bn' in bid to create jobs

AFP image

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama will propose the injection of $300 billion into the sputtering US economy in a pivotal speech laying out his plan to create jobs, US media are reporting.

CNN, citing sources in Obama's Democratic Party, said the plan includes $300 billion in new spending and an equal amount of offsetting cuts, including slashing payroll taxes and extending unemployment insurance.

The Bloomberg news service said the injection would come in the form of tax cuts, infrastructure spending and direct aid to state and local governments.

It said Obama would call for offsetting the cost by raising tax revenues in later years as part of a long-term deficit reduction plan that will include spending and entitlement cuts.

Such a plan would likely face stiff resistance from Obama's Republican foes, who have adamantly rejected any new revenue-raising measures and insisted that both tax and spending cuts will generate jobs and reduce debt.

The new employment initiative Obama will announce to a rare joint session of Congress on Thursday is crucial both to jolting the economy back to life and to replenishing his faded political stock ahead of the 2012 election.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license