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Obama battling over unemployment

30 January 2010 20:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ziya Agazade â€“ APA. President Barack Obama is shifting his administration’s emphasis to battling unemployment, the scourge that is hurting households nationwide and threatening to inflict heavy losses on Democrats in November’s elections, APA reports citing â€œAssociated Pressâ€.

The White House has pushed a job-creation agenda for months. But it wasn’t supposed to reign as the top priority until Democrats achieved their much-touted health care revisions.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said in an interview that the administration also hopes Congress will approve a new stimulus bill in the next couple of weeks. The other most immediate priorities, he said, are votes on a bailout fee on big banks and a financial reform package, including a new consumer finance agency.

Congressional Republicans have opposed these and other proposals, saying Obama wants to slap stifling regulations on the nation’s still-struggling financial sector.

Many congressional Republicans, riding high after their stunning victory in the Jan. 19 Massachusetts Senate race, think the Democrats’ strategy won’t work. They appear almost united in their willingness to oppose Democrats on numerous measures that arguably might appeal to the public, calling them irresponsible, unworkable or overly intrusive.

Both parties have made some nods at bipartisanship in recent days. But chances for meaningful accords before the November elections seem remote.