Obama Lays Out $450 Bln Jobs Plan, Gold Prices Little Changed After Speech By Debbie Carlson
of Kitco News
| Spetember 08, 2011, 8:48 p.m.
(Kitco News) - President Barack Obama laid
out a $450 billion jobs plan in a speech late Thursday,
saying the plan has elements pleasing to both Democrats
and Republicans and that it will not add to the U.S.’s
budget deficit.
Ahead of the speech, as the Asian trading
session started, gold prices were firmer from the Comex
close, trading around $1,864 an ounce.
Immediately after the speech ended prices rose about $2
an ounce, to around $1,866.
Obama spoke to Congress in the House of
Representatives chamber, a stage usually reserved for major
policy speeches, such as the State of Union address. Stakes
are high for the president, whose approval ratings are at
record lows, with the unemployment rate hovering around
9.1%.
Obama suggested spending on public works
to employ construction workers and more state funding to
help public schools. He also called on retaining the reduced
payroll tax for workers and for small businesses to see
a reduction in their payroll taxes. He also cited the need
for help for homeowners to refinance their mortgages, especially
with long-term rates near 4%. The bursting of the housing
bubble was one of the major causes of the 2008 recession
and continues to be a drag on the U.S. economy.
“This will not add to the deficit,”
Obama said, calling on the deficit-cutting committee to
find further cost savings to help pay for part of the plan.
He also renewed his call for increasing taxes on the wealth
and closing some corporate loopholes.
Obama said next week he will lay out a plan
to stabilize the debt for the long-term by suggesting changes
to the tax code. “We need a tax code where everyone
gets a fair shake and everyone pays their fair share,”
he said.
Several times he called on Congress to pass
his jobs bill, stressing that the bill includes ideas that
have been approved by both Democrats and Republicans. By
doing that he highlighted the rancorous political debate
going on in Washington lately. “Millions of Americans
don’t care about politics. They have real-life concerns,”
he said.