Obama Calls for Bipartisanship On Jobs Bill

  From Sunlen Miller: President Obama said Americans are “frustrated” with the amount of progress on key issues, and called for Congress to move forward “in a more bipartisan fashion,” despite disagreement on some issues. “Part of what we’d like to see is the ability of Congress to move forward in a more bipartisan fashion on some of the key challenges that the country is facing right now,” Mr. Obama said today. ” I think it’s fair to say that the American people are frustrated with the lack of progress on some key issues.  And although the parties are not going to agree on every single item, there should be some areas where we can agree and we can get some things done, even as we have vigorous debates on some of those issues that we don’t agree on.” Mr. Obama gathered a bipartisan group of leadership from both the House and the Senate in the Cabinet Room of the White House today to discuss how they can work together on issues of the economy and job creation. It is the first in a series of monthly meetings the president called for during his State of the Union address last month. “A good place to start, and what I hope to spend a lot of time on in these discussions today, is how we can move forward on a jobs package that encourages small business to hire, that is helping to create the kind of environment where, now that we have economic growth, people actually are starting to add to their payroll.” The president said that he would like to see the jobs bill package moving “over the next several weeks,” and outlined some of the ideas, as he has proposed over the last few weeks, for what he’d like to see included in the bill: lowing rates for small businesses on their taxes, getting deficits and debt under control, and the call to create a fiscal commission. “I think the American people want to see that concrete action,” the President said calling on all to move forward in the a “spirit of keeping in mind what’s best for the American people.” Joining the president for the meeting were Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Minority Leader John Boehner (R- OH), and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).  – Sunlen Miller