U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says the White House will keep acting on its own if congressional Republicans fail to pass the Democratic administration’s jobs bill. Republicans are offering their own proposals.
Filling in for President Barack Obama to deliver the weekly media address, the vice president said difficult times call for urgent measures. “We have to act now to do everything in our power to keep this economy moving and to grow jobs," he said.
Vice President Biden said President Obama had already used his executive powers to reduce student loan payments, and help veterans find jobs and homeowners refinance their mortgages.
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He also said the president spent time at the recent Group of 20 summit in France trying to keep the delicate economic recovery from being derailed, as European economies also deal with growing debts.
“He urged our European friends to step up and stabilize their own economies. Because if they fail, it will affect the whole world," he said.
In the Republican address, Senator Scott Brown, from the northeastern state of Massachusetts, said Republicans are offering their own solutions.
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A bill he introduced earlier this year to repeal a new tax on government contracts was recently adopted by the Republican-dominated House of Representatives but has yet to be taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Senator Brown is urging immediate congressional action to show both parties can agree on ways to boost job creation. “One breakthrough has a way of leading to other breakthroughs. One show of goodwill has a way of spreading goodwill. This jobs bill if we move it forward, it can be followed by many more than can do even greater good," he said.
The opposing views come as congressional Republicans have repeatedly voted down the measures in President Obama’s stimulus spending jobs bill, known as the American Jobs Act, which he first proposed in September.
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped slightly in October to 9 percent.