Obama radio address

In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Obama said he sent lawmakers his $447 billion jobs plan three weeks ago, "and now I want it back." He said that every day he receives letters from Americans "who expect Washington to do something about the problems we face." Many of them express support for his package of tax and spending measures which he announced on Sept. 8, President Obama said. He said 16-year-old Georgia student Destiny Wheeler wrote him that she wants to go to college, even though her family has little money to pay for it. "'The American Jobs act gives me hope that I might start to receive a better education, that one day job opportunities will be open for me to grasp, and that one day my personal American Dream will be reached,'" the president read from the letter. Another woman, Cathleen Dixon, attached photographs of a bridge she drives under every day on the way to drop her children off at their Chicago school. Dixon "worries about their safety and writes, 'I am angry that in this country of vast resources we claim that we cannot maintain basic infrastructure," President Obama related. "'How can we ever hope to preserve or regain our stature in this world if we cannot find the will to protect our people and take care of our basic needs?'" President Obama said in today's address that the plan is "fully paid for" and would benefit small businesses and help create jobs by keeping teachers employed and putting construction crews on the job rebuilding roads, bridges and schools. It would also include a cut in the payroll tax. He asked Republican lawmakers who oppose the bill to offer alternatives and say exactly what they oppose in his plan. "Are they against putting teachers and police officers and firefighters back on the job?" President Obama said. "Are they against hiring construction workers to rebuild our roads and bridges and schools? Are they against giving tax cuts to virtually every worker and small business in America?"