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Barack Obama will this week outline his ‘jobs and growth plan’ days after the US’s first month of zero net job growth since 1945.Liberals want the president to offer bold solutions – and dare the Republicans to block them. The country’s top trade union official, Richard Trumka, has urged Obama to ‘stand up for the American worker’, and warned him there is waning enthusiasm for his presidency from the labour movement.


Leadership: US is looking to President Barack Obama for a route out of the gloom

 



U.S jobs growth grinds to halt and sparks acute anxiety about state of economy


Obama has a difficult decision to
make. Boldness would set him on a collision course with the
Republican-controlled House of Representatives and risk a repeat of the
debt ceiling confrontation that led Standard & Poor’s to downgrade
America’s credit rating – but timidity would anger his political
supporters, who want aggressive spending.
The intensity of the partisan
animosity that has engulfed Washington makes political agreement on any
plan capable of boosting growth or creating jobs seem remote – there was
even bickering over when the president should make his speech.
Republicans have accused Obama of
wasting taxpayers’ money by ignoring proven free-market solutions in
favour of top-down interventionism. Their solution is for a bonfire of
regulations, which they say are stifling business and killing jobs.
The list of measures the president
will outline to Congress on Thursday will probably include
infrastructure spending – but not to the extent labour leaders are
arguing for – along with tax incentives for businesses to spur hiring,
and changes to the unemployment benefit system to subsidise workers’
retraining.
The question is: will Obama’s jobs
plan be big enough to boost growth, but small enough to secure
Republicans’ support? They are set to demand that any new spending is
offset by cuts. Nevertheless, the liberal wing of the Democratic Party
think Obama should be radical and, when Republicans object, campaign in
next year’s elections against a ‘do-nothing Congress’. Senior Democrat
Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said: ‘I don’t think he should limit his
vision to what may or may not pass the House of Representatives.’
Last Friday, Obama remained silent
when the dismal August jobs report was posted. With past reports he
appeared before the cameras to talk up the painfully modest progress
being made. This time, no spin would have helped.
While private sector employment rose
slightly, it wasn’t enough to make up for the state’s job losses.
Officially, US unemployment remains stuck at just over 9pc.
With eight in ten Americans now
believing the country has dropped back into recession, and with the
Republicans calling him President Zero, Obama’s own advisers privately
admit that Thursday’s speech will mark a crucial chance for him to make a
case for his own job renewal.