President Obama has his tax cut deal -- now he needs the jobs.
In selling the agreement with Republicans, Obama stressed the analysis of economics who said it would boost the economy and stimulate jobs -- a major concern for a president whose Democratic Party took a beating at the polls last month in the shadow of a 9.6% unemployment rate.
One thing the deal will do for sure: Increase the federal debt, already tagged at a record $13.7 trillion U.S.
This debt concern had once been raised by Obama, who once opposed an extension of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for the nation's wealthiest taxpayers. The president wound up accepting a temporary, two-year extension of all the Bush tax cuts, in exchange for a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits and a series of middle-class tax cuts.
In recent days, Obama has said he will continue to fight to have the high-end tax cuts expire in two years by challenging the Republicans to pay for them with deficit-reducing budget cuts.
Oregon Democrat Rep. Peter DeFazio, said on CNN this week that the deal is "a trap" for Obama and "potentially the end of his possibility of being reelected." He said the increased deficits will wind up increasing pressure to cut programs Democrats care about, DeFazio said, possibly including Social Security.
"Next year, the new Republicans come in -- whoa! -- we got to cut back (on) everything because we have a $1.7-trillion U.S. Obama deficit," DeFazio said. "They won't be talking about their role in creating that."
DeFazio also wondered whether the agreement will generate employment: "I believe six months from today people are going to say, where are all the jobs? What happened?"
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