President Obama has recently unveiled his new push for a large-scale† plan that he says will turn the economy around. The President is busy this week preparing statements to continue spreading knowledge of the plan. In Milwaukee on Labor Day, Obama gave a speech in an attempt to ensure voters that he has the issue under control. “I’m going to keep fighting, every single day, to turn this economy around; to put our people back to work; to renew the American dream for your families and for future generations,” Obama said. He has begun his series of speeches before mid-term elections to bestow trust in voters that he is making the economy his top priority.
Many voters are concerned that this approach to economic reform is only being addressed because of the looming election period. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended the President’s new direction by saying, “This is about long-term economic growth,” and continued with, “This isn’t about the next 60 days or the next 90 days.”
One part of the plan is comprised of a $50 billion infrastructure outline, which will attempt to create jobs by rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, 4,000 miles of rail, and 150 miles of airport runways. In addition to the big-budget infrastructure plan, it also includes a $100 billion permanent extension of the research and development business tax credit and a tax break for capital investments, potentially costing as much as $30 billion dollars over the next ten years. Although the new plan is slated to help fix the nation’s tumultuous economy, many people are wondering ó is it too late?
With Monday’s announcement of the costly plan, Republicans have already come out saying that they will do everything in their power to prevent it from passing in Congress. With the congressional year coming to a close, only a small window exists for any major movement to occur. If the lawmakers could come together to make anything happen, it would most likely not cause any changes this year. Republican Senator from Arizona, John McCain said that the President is “just flailing around” that is, grasping for something that in his mind should have been addressed a long time ago. On “Fox News Sunday,” McCain said, “The fact is, if we’d have done this kind of thing nearly a couple of years ago, we’d be in better shape.”
House minority leader John Boehner, who recently spoke in Cleveland to discuss extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, has been going head-to-head with the President as they argue about what is best for the future of Americas’s economy. Boehner believes that the new economic plan will be a failure and criticized the Obama administration for spending time worrying about his prior statements instead of helping to stimulate job growth. On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Boehner said “The American people are asking the question, ëWhere are the jobs?’ and yet here’s the White House worrying about what I’ve got to say instead of working together to get our economy going again and to get jobs back in America.” On Wednesday morning, Boehner suggested that the two political parties should strike a bi-partisan deal that would lower spending to what it was in 2008.
Political strategists worry that if there isn’t a major economic shift before November, the Democratic majority could be lost. According to a poll collected by the ABC News/Washington Post, Republicans currently have a 53 to 40 percent voter advantage over Democrats. In addition, the poll showed that 52 percent of voters do not approve of the job the President is doing, while 46 percent were in favor.
Although the plan is coming along with a strong group of skeptics, the President’s proposal is expected to be a fixture in political discussion for several months to come. Obama assures the American people that this is the answer to our looming economic problems. He admits that there is no immediate fix to this on-going problem and realizes it may take some time for the recovery process to begin, but remains dedicated to his proposal. The next few months leading up to the election will certainly bring a variety of issues to the table surrounding this new idea.