White House to circumvent Congress to jumpstart fragile economy

The Obama administration said on Monday that it would bypass the obstruction from an uncooperative Congress to take steps to jumpstart the weak economy, after the administration's recent jobs plan met strong obstruction from Republican rivals. "As we've seen now twice, Republicans have in lockstep voted no to jobs bill that most recently would have put up to 400,000 teachers and firefighters and police back to work. Previous to that, they voted no in unison, 100 percent, against the full American jobs bill," the White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Carney cited independent economists' views to stress that the jobs plan could help create up to 1.9 million job opportunities and grow the economy by up to 2 percent. Facing a sluggish economic growth and stubbornly high unemployment rate, U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled the jobs plan on Sept. 8, including measures like payroll tax cuts for employers and employees as well as new investment in infrastructure projects. However, Republican Senators scuttled the jobs package on Oct. 11, and a portion of the bill that provided 35 billion U.S. dollars to state and local governments to prevent layoffs of teachers, police officers and firefighters failed to advance in the Senate on Oct. 20. Carney noted that the administration would unveil a series of executive branch moves including helping more distressed homeowners refinance their loans, a key step to stabilize the sagging property sector.