WASHINGTON — House and Senate Democrats are urging President Barack Obama to propose spending on new public-works and jobs programs in his speech Thursday to a joint session of Congress. But Republicans vowed to resist such initiatives, saying they have been a spectacular failure in the past 2½ years.
Democrats said the top item on the agenda of Congress for the rest of this year, and the top priority for a special bipartisan committee on deficit reduction, must be finding jobs for the 14 million Americans who are out of work.
“Job creation equals deficit reduction,” said Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
But as Congress returned Tuesday from its summer break, partisan differences appeared just as pronounced as when lawmakers left town. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republicans said an overactive federal government was stifling economic growth. The New York Times
