WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will a
deliver rare address to a joint session of Congress next week to introduce a
long-awaited plan for jobs and economic growth, but not before being forced to
yield in a test of wills with House Speaker John Boehner over not what he would
say, but when he would say it.
Obama agreed to schedule his address on Sept. 8
after Boehner balked at the president's request for a Sept. 7 speech.
Obama's address still gives him a grand stage to
unveil his economic agenda, though it falls on the same evening as the opening
game of the National Football League season. White House communications
director Dan Pfeiffer said Thursday morning that Obama would finish his remarks
before kickoff, which is set for 8:30 p.m. EDT.
The change will allow a planned Sept. 7 Republican
presidential debate in Simi Valley, Calif., to proceed without Obama upstaging
it.
Still, by seeking a rare joint session of Congress
as his audience, Obama will get a nationally televised address that puts him
face to face with Republican lawmakers who have bitterly opposed his agenda and
who have vowed to vote down any new spending he might propose.
"It is our responsibility to find bipartisan
solutions to help grow our economy, and if we are willing to put country before
party, I am confident we can do just that," Obama wrote Wednesday in a
letter to Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said
Thursday the dust-up dramatizes why "people are fed up" with
Washington.
"It is such nonsense.This is what people hate
about politics," Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman said.
Carney said, "Our intention was merely for the
president to address a joint session as soon as possible," to outline his
plan for revving up the economy and taking the unemployment problem on head-on.
"Our interest is in not having a political
back and forth here at all," Carney told MSNBC in an interview. He said
the White House yielded when Boehner insisted the speech be next Thursday,
instead of Wednesday.
"Americans are sick and tired of the partisan
bickering" in the capital," Carney said. He argued that Obama's aim
is to "focus on things we can do" to spur the economy.
The White House budget office on Thursday is
expected to provide revised budget forecasts and the Labor Department on Friday
will release new August unemployment numbers. The two sets of data will
highlight Obama's challenge: addressing short-term demands to increase jobs and
shore up the economy while minding long-term budget deficits.
In seeking a joint session of Congress to deliver
his plan, the president is turning the effort into a public relations campaign.
Emphasizing that strategy and illustrating the fine
line between governing and political campaigning, Obama issued a plea through
his presidential campaign late Wednesday calling for public support in holding
Congress accountable.
The email asked supporters to provide their name
and email addresses, a mobilizing tactic useful both to push for legislative
action and to build a foundation for his re-election.
White House officials say not all details of the
president's address have been decided, though he is expected to lay out proposals
to increase hiring with a blend of tax incentives for business and government
spending for public works projects. At the same time, White House officials
say, he will offer long-term deficit reductions to make up for any upfront
spending.
The dispute over the timing of the speech created
an inauspicious start to the jobs debate and introduced tensions before
Congress even returns from its annual summer recess.
Usually, presidential requests to address Congress
are routinely granted after consultations between the White House and
lawmakers.
In this case, the White House notified Boehner's
office less than two hours before it released the letter requesting the
session. Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said Boehner's
office raised no objections or concerns.
"If they had raised an objection, we wouldn't
have gone forward with that date," he said.
In his formal reply a few hours later, Boehner said
the House would not return until late Sept. 7 and security and parliamentary
issues might be an obstacle. The House and the Senate each would have to adopt
a resolution to allow a joint session for the president.
Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said no one in
Boehner's office signed off on the date and accused the White House of ignoring
established protocol of arriving at a mutually agreed date before making public
announcements.
A key issue for many Republicans was the Sept. 7
Republican presidential debate in California.
In a message posted on the Twitter social network,
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus wrote, "BarackObama
request to give jobs speech the same night as GOP Presidential debate is
further proof this WH is all politics all the time."
Carney had said earlier that the timing chosen by
the White House was a coincidence.
Negotiations between the White House and Boehner's
office proceeded through the late afternoon and into the evening Wednesday
At about 9:15 p.m., Carney issued a statement:
"The president is focused on the urgent need to create jobs and grow our
economy, so he welcomes the opportunity to address a Joint Session of Congress
on Thursday, September 8th."
Huntsman made his remarks on NBC's
"Today" show.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
