ALLENTOWN, Pa. — 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 Tuesday from Washington. 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, the officials said. 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 support.
“We need to grow jobs and get America back to work as quickly as we can,” Obama said Friday at Lehigh Carbon Community College.
