Obama to hold news conference this morning
The White House announced that President Obama will hold a news conference Thursday morning in the East Room at 11 a.m. EDT / 8 a.m. PDT.
It will be the president’s first news conference since early September.
The central topic is expected to be Obama’s $447-billion jobs plan, known as the American Jobs Act, as well as the overall state of the global and American economies. The president has spent weeks crisscrossing the country to rally public support for the plan. The Senate may vote on it as early as next week.
A key sticking point in the proposal remains how it would be paid for. This week, Senate leaders proposed a 5.6% surtax on those making $1 million or more a year, rather than a tax hike on families making $250,000 or more annually, as Obama had proposed. The White House said Wednesday that it was open to the Senate proposal.
But Republicans in the Senate and House appear determined to fight any tax increase, and the House isn’t expected to vote on Obama’s package in its current form.
The president is also expected to address the death Wednesday of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
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