US President Barack Obama said on Friday he would outline new measures next week to boost the US economy, but analysts were skeptical he would be able to deliver a big enough package to lift growth significantly.
Obama made his remarks after last month’s data showed that jobs — the central issue in November congressional elections — were being created too slowly.
Last month’s employment report earlier showed a bigger-than- expected rise of 67,000 in private payrolls, while unemployment inched up a tenth of a percentage point to 9.6 percent.
Overall, US non-farm payrolls fell 54,000 as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial census dropped by 114,000.
“Jobs are being created. They’re just not being created as fast as they need to, given the big hole that we experienced,” Obama said.
The White House is under pressure to show tangible results in lifting growth and hiring before the Nov. 2 election, when Obama’s Democrats face punishment from voters anxious about near double-digit unemployment.
“I will be addressing a broader package of ideas next week,” Obama told reporters in the White House Rose Garden. “We are confident that we are moving in the right direction. But we want to keep this recovery moving stronger and accelerate the job growth that is needed so desperately all across the country.”
The White House has ruled out a second stimulus program along the lines of the US$814 billion emergency spending package Obama signed into law last year, limiting the scale of any new initiatives and the likely impact on US growth.
With little time left before the November vote and the risk Democrats could lose control of Congress, analysts saw little chance Obama could get backing for major measures.
“This is political positioning going into the elections. It is not the stuff of economic policy-making,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who advised Republican US presidential nominee Senator John McCain during the 2008 campaign.
The White House said Obama would “discuss some targeted proposals” during a visit to Cleveland on Wednesday, specifically noting his long-standing promise to extend tax cuts for US families earning less than US$250,000 a year, and investing in parts of the economy likely to grow fastest.
Obama aides said the speech in Cleveland would be broad in outlining ideas he believes will help stimulate the economy.
On Monday, the president highlighted a number of possible options, including extending middle-class tax cuts, investing in clean energy, spending more on infrastructure and delivering more tax cuts to businesses to encourage more hiring.
“The politics make it really difficult to do what should be done, and therefore trying to draw a balance between getting something and being politically realistic is problematic,” said Chad Stone, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
The White House declined to give more specifics about the measures under consideration and a spokeswoman said no final decisions had been made.
“We need to take further steps to create jobs and keep the economy growing, including extending tax cuts for the middle class and investing in the areas of our economy where the potential for job growth is greatest,” Obama said.
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