President Obama jobs plan: More Americans want Congress to pass it, says Gallup poll
President Obama's approval rating may be sinking, but the public is on his side when it comes to creating jobs.
More Americans want their member of Congress to vote in favor of the president's jobs bill than against it by a 45% to 32% margin, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.
Obama proposed the American Jobs Act of 2011 in a speech to Congress on Sept. 8 and sent the 155-page plan to lawmakers this week, saying the bill "will put people back to work all across the country."
The $447 billion package includes tax cuts and new government spending. It would reduce payroll taxes that employees and small businesses pay, give small businesses a tax break for hiring new workers and provide $140 billion for repairing roads and bridges and modernizing schools.
Republican reaction to the measure is mixed.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell dismissed the plan this week as "not serious and it's not a jobs plan." The same day, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor noted "potential areas of agreement," including tax relief for small businesses and employers.
On Thursday, Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul told Fox News he thinks the jobs plan is a make or break moment for the president.
Among Americans who say they are following news of the bill very closely, 57% want to see it passed, according to Gallup. While 70% of Democrats strongly support the bill and 60% of Republicans strongly oppose it, independent voters favor the plan by 44% to 32%, resulting in overall support for the measure.
"Despite headlines about the pushback, the public is more in favor of the plan than opposed to it," Frank Newport, Gallup's editor-in-chief, told the Daily News.
Americans disapprove of the overall job the president is doing by a 52% to 40% margin, according to a recent Gallup poll. The drop in his job approval comes as U.S. unemployment hit 9.1% in August, up from 7.8% when Obama took office in January 2009.
The bulk of the president's jobs plan - $400 billion over 10 years - would be covered by new limits on tax deductions for charitable contributions and other expenditures that are available to individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000 a year.
The rest would come from new limits on deductions for owners of corporate jets, hedge funds and oil and gas companies.
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