Focus On Jobs, Dems Urge Obama

The Hill reports:

Senior Senate Democrats are growing frustrated by what they see as President Obama’s passivity on the economy, and are beginning to discuss a large infrastructure package funded by tax increases.

Some Democrats, such as Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who serves as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, think such a package could lower the unemployment rate by as much as two percentage points.

But the plan is not without political risk — Republicans would be quick to slap Democrats with the old “tax-and-spend liberals” label. And the prospect of passing such a plan through the GOP-led House of Representatives — where conservative freshmen hold significant clout — is slim.

“I am concerned about the Obama administration’s approach on this,” Harkin said. “It always has been about jobs. I think the administration kind of got snookered talking about the deficit and the debt after the last election.

“The last election was about jobs and the economy, and now we’re in a position where we really do need some ecoomic pump-priming by the federal government,” he said.