Jobs Report Reinforces Parties in Deficit Talks
By MARK LANDLER
NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s drive for a supersize budget deal was further complicated on Friday by the release of unexpectedly weak employment figures, which Republicans seized on to bolster their arguments against possible tax increases and Democrats said were reason to limit painful spending cuts.
Heading into a crucial weekend of negotiations, Mr. Obama said the jobless numbers, and the fragile recovery they underscored, should give both parties even more incentive to strike a deal reducing the deficit and averting the risk of a government default early next month. But the president appeared largely alone in seeing the bad news as a call to boldness.
Republicans cited the report in renewing their assault on Mr. Obama’s stewardship of the economy, with lawmakers saying they would not accept tax increases at a moment when the economic recovery appears to be losing steam. And several Democrats said the continued economic hardship made substantial cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security even harder to contemplate, given that they would hit the poor and the elderly and further reduce whatever support government spending is providing to the economy.
A day after the White House and Congressional leaders pledged to pursue the largest possible budget deal — one that could generate up to $4 trillion in savings over a decade — there was already talk on Capitol Hill about the virtues of passing something more modest, in the range of $2 trillion or thereabouts.
(More here.)
NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s drive for a supersize budget deal was further complicated on Friday by the release of unexpectedly weak employment figures, which Republicans seized on to bolster their arguments against possible tax increases and Democrats said were reason to limit painful spending cuts.
Heading into a crucial weekend of negotiations, Mr. Obama said the jobless numbers, and the fragile recovery they underscored, should give both parties even more incentive to strike a deal reducing the deficit and averting the risk of a government default early next month. But the president appeared largely alone in seeing the bad news as a call to boldness.
Republicans cited the report in renewing their assault on Mr. Obama’s stewardship of the economy, with lawmakers saying they would not accept tax increases at a moment when the economic recovery appears to be losing steam. And several Democrats said the continued economic hardship made substantial cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security even harder to contemplate, given that they would hit the poor and the elderly and further reduce whatever support government spending is providing to the economy.
A day after the White House and Congressional leaders pledged to pursue the largest possible budget deal — one that could generate up to $4 trillion in savings over a decade — there was already talk on Capitol Hill about the virtues of passing something more modest, in the range of $2 trillion or thereabouts.
(More here.)
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