Senate Republicans present Obama with counteroffer on jobs

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The Hill:

Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled their own jobs package and called on President Obama to enter negotiations reconciling it with parts of his own jobs bill.

They said the package was developed in response to criticism that the GOP had no positive agenda and took pains to say the bill was an opening offer for negotiations with the White House.

The GOP package includes proposals anathema to Democrats such as the complete repeal of Obama’s healthcare reform and financial regulatory reform bills but it also has a number of proposals that enjoy some bipartisan support.

“From a Republican point of view this is a welcomed development. We have to be for something,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said. “I wish the president would have a jobs summit…this is an offer by the Republican party.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who led the effort to craft the Jobs Through Growth Act, said that the package was developed in part because President Obama has been touring the country claiming the GOP does not have its own jobs agenda.

“Part of it is a response to the president saying we don’t have a proposal,” McCain said.

He also called for talks with the president. “There has been no outreach by the president or his people to us,” he said.

“We are tired of him going around the country saying we don’t have a jobs plan,” Paul said of Obama. “We want to have a constructive conversation with him.”

The senators said that most of the package has been floating around for months and McCain said almost the entire GOP caucus is on board with the plan.



The GOP Jobs act also proposes a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, a type of line-item veto, a complete moratorium on federal regulations, medical malpractice reform, a reform of the National Labor Relations Board, and a series of measures to ease regulations on oil, gas and mining activities.

On trade, it proposes renewing the president’s authority to negotiate free trade agreements and have them enjoy fast-track approval in Congress.

On regulations, the bill contains a measure requiring Congressional approval of all new regulations and several measures aimed at specific environmental regulations including one ending regulation of farm dust.