Can Obama's job plan force Congress' hand?

By Jim Spencer and Jeremy Herb

President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday night was high political theater. But when the pomp and circumstance that rivaled a State of the Union address ended, many paralyzing differences remained between the White House and Republican members of Congress who will have to agree to make the president's dream a reality.

As it often does, the Minnesota delegation formed a representative microcosm of the entire Congress. Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken saw promise in the $447 billion plan, in part because Obama plans to pay for most of it with reductions in other spending.

"I like the tone he took," Franken said of Obama. "We need jobs now. We need to build roads now."

The speed with which Congress is willing to act on the American Jobs Act that Obama plans to send to the House and Senate next week will say a lot about the legislature's sense of urgency.

Republicans like Rep. Erik Paulsen liked portions of the president's proposal that called for passing trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. He also liked the president's call to get rid of red tape in the permitting process for construction projects. But Paulsen, who represents Minnesota's Third District, stopped far short of endorsing the heart of the president's plan.

Plans to spend $140 billion to rehire teachers laid off in the recession, to build roads and to repair schools sounded too much like earlier economic stimulus spending to Paulsen, which he considered a failure. So did a $62 billion extension of unemployment benefits and $245 billion in payroll tax cuts for small businesses and individuals.

"I was pleased to hear the President heed the call of Americans by expressing a desire to work together to promote long term economic growth," Kline said in a statement. "Unfortunately, his call for more stimulus-type measures ignores the reality that people – not government – are our nation's true job creators."

Republican Rep. Chip Cravaack of Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District did not attend the president's speech. His spokesman Michael Bars said in a statement that Cravaack "was huddling with his team listening carefully to the president's speech."

"Rep. Cravaack will examine all pro-growth proposals that mitigate excessive, job-destroying regulations that saddle small businesses and job creators," Bars said.

Asked about Republicans who skipped the speech, Paulsen said it was a mistake. "I mean look, he's the president of the United States, and you should be here to listen to his points of views," Paulsen said. "That's part of the whole opportunity to break the gridlock is to have the exchange of ideas."

Stormy weather delayed Rep. Michele Bachmann's arrival at the Capitol. She listened to the speech on the way in, she said. Bachmann, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, later held a press conference in which she slammed the president's jobs proposal.

"It seems to me that this is all of a piece," Franken said. "I don't know if it all unravels if part of it doesn't pass."

In a background briefing with reporters, an administration official said: "If there are Republicans or Democrats out there with good ideas, we want to hear them."

But the president wants Congress to act quickly.

If it doesn't, if it gridlocks on Obama's jobs plan the way it did on the budget and the debt ceiling, Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison predicted that an already angry public will not blame Obama.