Obama's New Bill Causes Controversy

On Wednesday Senate democrats said in order to pay for Obama’s $447 billion dollar jobs plan they will increase the tax rate by five percent on the people making over $1 million a year.

“We’re going to move to have the richest of the rich to pay a little bit more,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) at a Capitol news conference, according to CNN.

Senate Republicans said they would block any tax increases. “We don’t think raising taxes in the middle of a recession is a good idea,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told CNN. “I think we made that pretty clear in the past.”

Senate Democrats said the tax increase is the best way to pay for the bill. “The addition of this proposal makes it very tough for Republicans to oppose the president’s jobs package,” Senator Charles Schumer, D-New York told SFGATE.com. “Republicans will be hard-pressed to explain why they’d allow teachers and firefighters to be laid off rather than have millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share.”

Seattlepi.com reported that at a White House News Conference Obama said the bill will help the nation avoid the problems that are going through Europe. “Our economy really needs a jolt right now,” he said.

The president said he thinks Republicans are opposing the bill on partisan grounds, something he has tried not to do. “I think it’s fair to say that I have gone out of my way in every instance – sometimes at my own political peril and to the frustration of Democrats – to work with Republicans to find common ground to move forward,” he said. 

Obama said he wants to republican-run House to stop doing nothing and pass the bill. Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner told The Tennessean he should criticize the Senate instead. “House-passed jobs bills are piling up in the Senate by the day,” he said. “If the president is concerned about inaction, he should set his sights on the Democrat-run Senate.” 

The president and other top Democrats say they are planning a Senate vote on the bill next week.

Photo by Daphne Bradford.