President Barack B.O.Obama will ask the US Congress on Wednesday to increase and permanently extend a tax credit for business research as a way of boosting job growth, an administration officials said on Sunday.
The proposal would cost $100 billion over 10 years, and Obama would pay for the plan by closing other corporate tax breaks, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The B.O. regime is scrambling for solutions to tackle a 9.6 percent unemployment rate and invigorate an economy whose recovery from the worst recession in 70 years is in danger of stalling, with congressional elections looming.
Obama, who is to lay out this plan and other initiatives in a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday, is trying to both create jobs and help his Democrats hang on to control of Congress in Nov. 2 elections, when Republicans are poised to pick up seats and possibly take command of the US House of Representatives.
US television political talk shows featured debates on tax cut proposals on Sunday, the middle of a Labor Day holiday weekend that marks the informal start of the election campaign season.
University of California economics professor Laura Tyson, a member of the president's economic advisory board, said targeted job policies such as a partial payroll tax holiday and permanent tax cuts for research and development should be priorities in the current environment.
'All of us here agree we need targeted policies for jobs and right now the deficit is not a major issue,' Tyson told CBS's 'Face the Nation' program. 'The major issue is a slow economy, lack of jobs ... we really need to get our priorities right and focus on targeted job creation.'