Obama Pushes for Veterans Portion of Jobs Plan

With the unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the double digits, President Obama urged Congress on Monday to pass a component of his jobs package aimed at helping veterans find work.

The measure would provide a $5,600 tax break for companies that hire veterans who’ve been out of work for more than six months; a $2400 credit for hiring veterans who’ve been unemployed for less than six months, and a $9,600 credit for hiring unemployed veterans with service-oriented disabilities.

“There’s no good reason to oppose this bill, not one. Our veterans did their jobs. It’s time for Congress to do theirs,” said Obama, flanked by soldiers, in the White House Rose Garden Monday. “It’s time for them to put country before party, put our veterans back to work, and pass this element of the jobs package that benefits our veterans and gives businesses an incentive to hire veterans.”

The White House also announced a series of other initiatives that would create an online jobs bank for veterans and provide six months of personalized case management and employment counseling for unemployed veterans.

“We can’t simply wait for Congress to do its job,” Obama said. “If Congress won’t act, I will.”

The U.S. Senate may consider the veterans proposal this week. But will it fare any better than the others?

Just last week

Senate Republicans blocked a $60 billion measure to fund transportation projects and a new infrastructure bank, which would have been fully funded by a tax on millionaires. They’ve also defeated a $35 billion bill to save or create jobs for teachers and first responders, as well as the entire package the president initially introduced.

The millionaires’ tax is a nonstarter for Republicans and the primary reason they’ve been unable to support any of the bills that have stalled in the upper chamber. In addition, they say, Democrats’ proposals are tantamount to a second stimulus program.

“The American people deserve to know why their Republican representatives in Washington refuse to put some

of the workers hardest hit by the economic downturn back on the job rebuilding America. They deserve an explanation as to why Republicans refuse to step up to the plate and do what’s necessary to create jobs and grow the economy right now,” Obama said. “It’s time for them to do their job and focus on Americans’ jobs. And until they do, I will continue to do everything in my power to move this country forward.”

House Speaker John Boehner said during his weekly briefing with reporters that the lower chamber will take up a six-year surface transportation bill that would be linked to expanded domestic drilling.

“This is, I think, the

opposite of stimulus by linking infrastructure to energy reform and permanently removing barriers to job growth instead of just spending money on short-term fixes,” Boehner said. “The president says he wants more money for infrastructure, and he’s said he supports more American-made energy, so I hope he’ll work with us on this.”

The Senate tried on the same day that they killed the Democrats’ bill to introduce a two-year highway measure that would roll back Environmental Protection Agency clean-air rules by eliminating its authority to cut toxic emissions from cement plants and industrial boilers and preventing it from issuing new pollution regulations, which they’ve derided as “job killing.”