WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden on
Saturday continued to press Congress to pass the Obama administration's nearly
$450 billion jobs bill.
Filling in for President Barack Obama in the weekly
White House radio and Internet address, Biden asked listeners to tell
Republican lawmakers "to step up" and approve the legislation.
"Tell them to stop worrying about their jobs
and start worrying about yours because we're all in this together, and together
is the way we're going to bring America back even stronger than it was
before," Biden said.
Obama, who returned to Washington late Friday after
attending an international economic summit in France, made a similar appeal in
last week's address.
Biden said as opposition from Republicans continues
— a piece of the larger jobs bill was blocked earlier this week — the president
has used his executive authority to help veterans find jobs, homeowners
refinance mortgages, and reduce the cost of student loans.
The vice president said those efforts would
continue so long as Republican oppose the president's jobs bills.
"If the Republican Congress won't join us,
we're going to continue to act on our own to make the changes that we can to
bring relief to middle-class families and those aspiring to get in the middle
class," Biden said.
Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected a $60
billion bill that would have built and repaired infrastructure such as roads
and rail lines. It was the third defeat for Obama's stimulus-style jobs agenda.
Last month, Republicans blocked the $447 billion package and then Democratic
efforts to win approval of a $35 billion piece of the legislation intended to
prevent layoffs of teachers and firefighters
Obama unveiled his jobs plan in September and has
since launched a campaign-style effort — holding rallies in states critical to
his re-election efforts — to win its passage.
In the GOP's weekly address, Massachusetts Sen.
Scott Brown urged Senate passage of what he called a "jobs bill" that
would repeal a 3 percent withholding mandate on payments to many contractors
who do business with the federal government.
Brown called it "a stealth tax" that will
hit small businesses and contractors starting in 2013.
"Now, all the mandate will do is, is take more
money out of our economy at a time when quite frankly we can least afford it.
And as a result, businesses will have less money to hire and pay new workers,"
Brown said.
The repeal passed the House last week with wide
bipartisan support and Brown called on the Senate majority leader, Democrat
Harry Reid of Nevada, to bring it to a vote.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Keith Srakocic)
