Obama plans new jobs bill to 'jump-start' hiring, sees 'better days' ahead for employment
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) _ Even as he heralded the first unemployment drop in months, President Barack Obama began putting the finishing touches Friday on a fresh job creation proposal he's planning to send to Congress next week.
"I still consider one job lost one job too many," Obama told a community college crowd in Allentown. "Good trends don't pay the rent."
The president plans to outline his list of ideas for a new jobs bill in a speech from Washington on Tuesday. Among the plans he's likely to endorse is an expansion of a program that gives people cash incentives to fix up their homes with energy-saving materials, senior administration officials said.
Obama also is leaning toward new incentives, either through the tax code or some other means, for small businesses that hire new workers and toward new spending for building roads, bridges and other infrastructure, said the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the package, and Obama's speech, are still being crafted and could change.
The president also is open to a federal infusion of money to cash-strapped state and local governments, considered among the quickest and most effective _ though expensive _ ways to stem layoffs. Officials stressed that Obama probably won't mention in his speech every job-stimulating idea he will eventually support.
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Senate keeps long-term care in health overhaul; Dem leaders scramble to line up moderates
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Keeping faith with the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Senate voted Friday to preserve within its health overhaul bill a long-term care insurance program to help seniors and the disabled avoid nursing homes.
But the vote exposed the difficulties Democratic leaders face in persuading their own moderates to remain united behind sweeping legislation they hope to deliver to President Barack Obama. Eleven Democrats voted with Republicans, who warned that the new program would turn into a drain on the federal budget.
Republicans fell short in a bid to strike the long-term care plan on a 51-47 vote. They needed 60 votes to prevail.
Two leading Democrats who shaped the health care bill, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana and Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota, voted with the GOP _ underscoring the gravity of the fiscal concerns.
Known as the CLASS Act, short for Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, the idea was originally championed by Kennedy, the Massachusetts liberal who pursued the goal of health care for all through decades in public service until his death from brain cancer in August.
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