Photo by: Manthan Bhatt
President Barack Obama spoke at Abraham Lincoln High School, three miles from the University of Denver, Tuesday afternoon to promote his economic plan, The American Jobs Act.
“It is time to build an economy that creates good, middle-class jobs in this country,” said Obama in an appeal to Colorado citizens for a grassroots campaign to pass his plan.”It’s time to build an economy that honors the values of hard work and responsibility. Denver, that starts now. That starts with your help.”
Over 4,500 students, teachers, volunteers and members of the Denver community heard Obama’s appeal. Colorado government officials of the Democrat party came in full show, namely Senator Mark Udall and Michael Bennett, Representatives Diana Degette and Ed Perlmutter, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Mayor of Denver Michael Hancock and the Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper.
“We need to make sure this generation of students can go to college on student aid or scholarships, like I did,” said Obama, reflecting on his college years at Occidental and Columbia.
The American Jobs Act is a $450 billion proposal that creates programs agreed to by both Democrats and Republicans in the past. The plan consists of a $175 billion employee tax cut; a $140 billion investment into hiring more teachers, modernizing schools, fixing roads and creating a widely supported infrastructure bank; $70 billion to cut employer payroll taxes and a bonus payroll cut for new jobs created; and added $50 billion to extend and transform unemployment insurance into a program which trains employees on the job at no labor cost to an employer.
“A teacher somewhere helped you gain the skills to succeed,” Obama said, ad-libbing.
The American Jobs Act has been scored debt-neutral because of the tax reform plan that Obama had laid out earlier this year.
“Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett,” said the President, showing the need for large scale restructuring of the tax code.
However, this portion of the plan has the biggest hurdle. Republicans in the house have refused to raise any new taxes – be it on the rich or anyone else.
Obama repeated the phrase, “Pass this jobs bill,” a dozen times throughout his speech. Towards the end, the President asked his followers to “call, e-mail, tweet, fax, visit, and tell [their] congressperson that the time for gridlock and games is over. The time for action is now.”
