Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
President Obama has been seeking support for his
four-hundred-forty-seven-billion-dollar jobs plan.
The American Jobs Act calls for cutting wage taxes
on most businesses. It seeks to prevent public
employees like teachers, police and firefighters
from losing their jobs to budget-cutting measures.
And it calls for more federal spending on roads and
transportation infrastructure to help create jobs.In
October the Senate blocked a vote on the full bill.
President Obama said he would seek votes on
different parts of his jobs plan. Mr. Obama and his
wife, Michelle, traveled to North Carolina and
Virginia as part of efforts to seek support for his
jobs plan.The Republican majority leader in the
House of Representatives said some parts of the bill
are like those in a plan put forward by the
Republicans. Eric Cantor urged President Obama to
find common ground with House Republicans. "We want
the president to work with us. We want him to stop
campaigning. Let's go find the things that are in
common between this plan and his."Republicans in
Congress offered their own plans to improve job
growth earlier in the year. They have called for
cutting tax rates and limiting government rules on
businesses.Also in October, Congress passed free
trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama,
and the president signed them into law. Both Mr.
Obama and congressional Republicans agree the deals
should create jobs at home and open markets to
American exports. United States trade officials say
every additional billion dollars in new exports
supports six thousand additional jobs. Last year,
exports to South Korea alone stood at about
thirty-nine billion dollars. But the president says
a lack of jobs continues to hurt economic growth.
The unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent in
September. The economy added over one hundred
thousand jobs during the month. But economists say
that is not enough to markedly bring down jobless
rate.For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal.
Our programs are a way for people to read, listen
and learn American English and much more. You can
download transcripts and MP3s of our stories at
voaspecialenglish.com. You can also join us on
Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
