President Barack Obama began an uphill battle on Friday for support for a $447 billion jobs plan he hopes will rescue a faltering economy and his own re-election prospects. A day after unveiling his proposals for tax cuts and public works spending on Capitol Hill, he pitched the plan directly to Americans with a speech in Virginia, kicking off a months-long campaign to promote it across the country.
"Everything in it will put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working. Everything in it will be paid for," he told nearly 9,000 supporters at Richmond University at an event dotted with "2012" signs.
"Next week, I will send it to Congress. They should pass it right away," he said, calling on people to email, Tweet, fax, visit, Facebook and even "send a carrier pigeon" to make sure their elected officials get the message they need to act.
"I want you tell your congressperson the time for gridlock and games is over," Obama said.
The Democratic president has not yet said how the larger-than-expected plan would be paid for -- a key issue for Republicans intent on reducing the deficit.
He will outline proposals on September 19 for long-term deficit cuts, expected to total $2 trillion over 10 years, to cover the jobs package and the $1.2 trillion a bipartisan panel needs to find over 10 years as part of a deal to raise the debt limit.
Those are expected to include tweaks to the Medicare and Medicaid health programs for the elderly and poor, as well as to Social Security retirement benefits, plus some spending cuts and tax changes for corporations and wealthy Americans.
The White House sees Obama's jobs plan -- a mix of payroll tax cuts and spending to upgrade roads, bridges and schools -- as the best hope for reducing the 9.1 percent unemployment rate that poses the biggest threat to his re-election hopes.
Early estimates suggested it could lift U.S. growth by 1 to 3 percentage points in 2012, lower the unemployment rate by at least half a percentage point and add well over 1 million jobs. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics said it could create 1.9 million jobs.
With his on-the-road messaging, Obama hopes to rally enough support to pressure Republicans to get behind the plan so that it can start to lower unemployment before voters make up their mind about who to support in November 2012.
TAX CUTS YES, INFRASTRUCTURE NO
There were initial signs that Republican congressional leaders may be ready to find some common ground on the plan, despite their opposition to much of Obama's agenda over the past year.
John Boehner said Obama's ideas merit consideration. Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, said the payroll tax cuts were "something that will be a part of the discussions."
"I heard plenty in the president's speech last night where there is a lot of room for commonality and we can get something done quickly," Cantor told CNN on Friday.
