US Vice President Urges Congress to Back Jobs Bill
Vice President Joe Biden answers a question after speaking at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 4, 2011.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is appealing to the public to persuade Congress to approve the president＇s jobs bill.
Biden delivered the weekly White House address Saturday, as President Barack Obama returned from the G20 economic summit in France.
The vice president said the president is not waiting on Congress to act. He said Obama has already used his executive powers to reduce student loan payments and lower interest rates for homeowners refinancing loans.
Vice President Biden says Republicans in Congress can help by stop blocking the jobs bill that would return hundreds of thousands of police, firefighters, teachers and construction workers back to work.
In the Republican address, Senator Scott Brown of the northeast state of Massachusetts appealed to Democrats in the Senate to back a jobs bill he introduced early this year. Brown says the bill gets rid of a mandate he describes as a "stealth tax" that will impact small businesses and contractors working for the federal government starting in 2013.
On Friday, the Labor department announced the economy had a net gain of 80,000 jobs last month, as the country＇s unemployment rate dropped slightly in October to 9 percent.
The jobless rate is the lowest in six months, but still leaves nearly 14 million Americans out of work.
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