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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Tuesday called fellow Democrats to quit playing games with ordinary Americans’ lives noting that his top priority is ” to do what’s right for the American people, for jobs, and for economic growth.”

Addressing journalists at a press conference in the White House, the President said that he was “focussed on making sure that tens of millions of hardworking Americans are not seeing their paychecks shrink on January 1st just because the folks here in Washington are busy trying to score political points.”

There was a loud murmur from left-leaning Democrats as the President announced his compromise plan with Republicans to create jobs and boost consumer spending along with extending all the tax cuts that are set to expire on Dec. 31.

Democrats were angry with Obama’s nod to continuation of the controversial Bush-era tax cuts announced nearly a decade ago for the wealthiest households, adding billions in staggering addition to the deficit over the next two years.

Vice President Biden, one of the architects of the compromise, did not have much success at the Capitol but he is expected to return on Wednesday to pursue further with Democrats.

There were, however, whispers of approval also in legislative corridors of power as one of the Democrat insider reluctant to be quoted, noted major tax-breaks to boost capital injections, unemployment benefits to continue for 13 months and savings for working couples with tax-breaks.

Obama told journalists at the hurriedly called press conference, “Two million Americans who lost their jobs and are looking for work will be able to pay their rent and put food on their table.”

With an eye on his sulking Democrats, Obama, “I understand the desire for a fight. I’m sympathetic to that. I’m as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I’ve been for years,” he said. “But in the meantime, I’m not here to play games with the American people or the health of our economy.”

John D. Podesta, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for American Progress said in a statement, “I think the President was right to choose helping working Americans over a December conflagration,” noting, “President Obama decided he couldn’t abandon the millions of Americans who are struggling to keep their families afloat, who are diligently searching for work, and who simply cannot afford higher taxes right now.”

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – A strong majority of the presidential debt commission voted Friday to approve a plan for reducing the national budget deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade through spending cuts and tax increases.

President Obama appointed the 18-member commission that includes Republicans and Democrats last February.

Eleven of the members supported the plan.

However, the 11 votes in favor fell short of the 14 needed to send the plan to Congress for legislative action.

Nevertheless, even the commission’s members were surprised by the heavy majority who supported it.

“This plan is not perfect, and it is certainly not the plan I would have written. But it will help put Americans back to work and it will reduce our federal debt dramatically,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) wrote in a newspaper commentary. “If we don’t act now … the tough choices we face now only get tougher.”

Five Republicans, five Democrats and one independent voted for the plan.

The commission included six private individuals drawn from industry, academia and labor groups. The others were political officials.

One of the Republicans was Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, who said, “Our debt crisis is a threat not just to our way of life but to our national survival. And the threat that we face is so real and so close that we do not have further time for gridlock or inaction.”

The commission’s work on the plan showed how deeply opinions are split on the seriousness of the $13.8 trillion national debt.

Opponents of the plan complained that the proposed spending cuts would cause too many short-term problems for people who need the money the worst.

Even without the supermajority of 14 votes required for congressional action, Obama and others said the debt commission’s plan is likely to influence government policies.

“The commission’s majority report includes a number of specific proposals that I — along with my economic team — will study closely in the coming weeks as we develop our budget and our priorities for the coming year,” Obama said in a statement.

“I don’t doubt our ability to meet this challenge, but our success depends on our willingness to engage in the kind of honest conversation and cooperation that hasn’t always happened in Washington. We cannot afford to fall back on old ideologies, and we will all have to budge on long-held positions. So I ask members of both parties to maintain an open mind and a commitment to progress as we work to lift this burden from the shoulders of future generations.”

A primary goal for Obama’s economic programs is to create jobs, which he mentioned in his statement Friday as the latest Labor Department figures showed unemployment rose in November. The jobless rate increased to 9.8 percent from 9.6 percent in October.

Recommendations in the debt commission’s plan seek to soften the burden on wage-earners most likely to lose their jobs by preserving tax breaks for mortgage interest on primary residences, charitable contributions and employer-paid health insurance.

Individual and corporate tax rates would be lowered from a maximum of 35 percent to nor more than 29 percent.

However, most other tax breaks would be eliminated, especially for people making the most money.

Other parts of the plan call for higher Medicare copayments and reduced Social Security benefits.

The age of eligibility for Social Security would rise gradually from 65 years old now to 67 by 2027 and 69 by 2075.

In addition, new rules are needed to ensure defense and domestic spending is cut and stays that way, the commission’s plan says.

The commission approved its plan while debate in Congress continues on whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts before they expire Dec. 31.

Republicans say the tax cuts are needed to keep the recent uptick in the economy going.

Democrats say additional tax revenue is necessary to extend unemployment benefits that started to expire this week.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – President Obama is proposing to freeze the pay of federal employees for the next two years, but there is no such effort to freeze the wages of the thousands of state workers who are slated to get a 3 percent across-the-board raise on January 2 and another 3 percent raise in mid-June.

The January raise, originally scheduled for July 2010, was delayed for six months as part of a deal that Republican Governor Carcieri struck with the major state employee unions last fall to save an estimated $36 million over his final 15 months in office.

As part of a compromise aimed at averting the widespread layoffs threatened by Carcieri, the state’s major unions also agreed to a series of unpaid work days, for which their members could be compensated later in either cash or extra paid days off.

The last four of these deferred pay days are scheduled for the second half of the current budget year that began on July 1, according to Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe.

The state budget office has calculated that the first of the two raises, in January, will cost an extra $12,051,000 this year in state and federal dollars, and add a total of $24.5 million to the state’s personnel costs next year when the state is facing a projected deficit of at least $295 million.

And that does not count the automatic longevity bonuses that state employees get as they reach benchmarks in their career, such as a 10-year or 15-year mark.

Asked where Carcieri stood on the need to freeze state employee wages at a time when the president is seeking a pay freeze at the federal level, and private employers in Rhode Island are still asking their employees to take pay cuts, spokeswoman Amy Kempe said: “Any further reduction in pay or wage freezes would need to be negotiated by the labor unions and the Chafee administration.

“However, the Chafee administration could impose pay freezes (or other measures) on non-union employees within the executive branch, although it has been policy for non-union and union employees to receive the same wage/benefit structure.”

There has been no immediate response from Governor-elect Chafee’s transition office.

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