WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is banking
on a new report detailing the income disparity in the country as further
evidence of the need for his $447 billion jobs bill.
A report this past week by the Congressional Budget
Office found that average after-tax income for the top 1 percent of U.S.
households had increased by 275 percent over the past three decades.
Middle-income households saw just a 40 percent rise. For those at the bottom of
the economic scale, the jump was 18 percent.
Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address
Saturday that he would pay for his jobs plan with an added tax on people who
make at least $1 million a year.
Senate Republicans have blocked action on the bill,
which mixes tax breaks for businesses and public works spending, because they
oppose much of the increased spending and the tax on millionaires.
"These are the same folks who have seen their
incomes go up so much, and I believe this is a contribution they're willing to
make," Obama said. "Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress aren't
paying attention. They're not getting the message."
Obama is now trying to get Congress to pass the
individual components of the bill. But Senate Republicans also stalled progress
on the first of those measures, $35 billion to help local governments keep
teachers on the job and pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and
other emergency services workers.
Saying the country cannot wait for Congress, Obama
has begun bypassing Congress and taking steps on his own that he says will
encourage economic growth.
On Friday, Obama directed government agencies to
shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products
in the marketplace. The goal is to help startup companies and small businesses
create jobs and expand their operations more quickly.
The president also called for creating a
centralized online site for companies to easily find information about federal
services. He previously had announced help for people who owe more on their
mortgages than their homes are worth and for the repayment of student loans.
The White House also challenged community health centers to hire veterans.
"We can no longer wait for Congress to do its
job," Obama said. "So where Congress won't act, I will."
The congressional report, based on Internal Revenue
Service and Census Bureau data, was released as the Occupy Wall Street movement
spreading across the country protests bailouts for corporations and the income
gap.
In the weekly GOP message, Illinois Rep. Bobby
Schilling urged Obama to support bills that Republicans say would help create
jobs by blocking various energy and environmental regulations and streamlining
administrative procedures. The bills, passed by the Republican-controlled
House, await action in the Democratic-run Senate.
Shilling said the bills give the White House and
Congress an opportunity to build on the common ground created by the passage of
recent free-trade agreements, and a measure to void a law requiring federal,
state and many local governments to withhold 3 percent of their payments to
contractors until their taxes are paid. Obama included repealing that tax in
his jobs plan.
"Republicans have a jobs plan, one with some
bipartisan support, but it's stuck in the Senate," said Schilling, owner
of a pizza parlor in Moline, Ill. "We're asking President Obama to work
with us and call on the Senate to pass the 'forgotten 15' to help the private
sector create jobs, American jobs desperately needed."
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
