Obama blasts GOP ‘games-playing’ over jobs plan

President Obama tried to inject a sense of urgency into the push to pass his jobs bill Thursday morning, warning that a looming European economic crisis could affect the United States and arguing that his jobs plan is necessary to provide a buffer.

At a news conference arranged earlier Thursday, Obama said he had gone out of his way to find a solution with Republicans but had run into “games-playing.”

“If Congress does something,” he said, “then I can’t run against a do-nothing Congress.”

But even as he spoke, Republicans vowed to fight the key Democratic proposals to pay for the president’s $447-billion jobs plan, the American Jobs Act.

A key sticking point in the proposal remains how the plan would be paid for. This week, Senate leaders proposed a 5.6% surtax on millionaires rather than a tax hike on families making more $250,000 or more, as Obama had proposed.

Thursday morning Obama did not explicitly disown his mechanism to pay for the jobs act, but he signaled openness to the latest proposal.

Republicans who want to cut taxes should love his plan, Obama said. It would cut taxes for virtually every worker and small business, he said, while “calling on millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday called the new Senate proposal an “unwise tax hike” and said Republicans wouldn’t stand for it.

“This bill is the same wasteful spending, the same burdensome union giveaways, and the same temporary tax policy that has failed the American people the last two years,” McConnell said.

Obama spoke of the “emergency” facing the country and urged Republicans to negotiate. The Senate could vote on the plan next week.

The House isn’t expected to vote on Obama’s package in its current form.

christi.parsons@latimes.com

peter.nicholas@latimes.com