With U.S. mayors exerting new pressure on the White House and Congress to spend more money on infrastructure and worker-training programs to create more jobs, Vice President Joe Biden will huddle with a bipartisan group of lawmakers again this week in an attempt to complete the outline of a deficit-reduction deal by early July.
Democrats are hoping to gain more traction this week on their attempt to raise revenues after Republican senators voted last week to end an ethanol tax break while House Republicans remain committed to exacting roughly $4 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. The group has a hard deadline of Aug. 2 to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the U.S. from defaulting, which would have a cataclysmic impact on the already fragile economy, the White House and economists have warned.
But a bipartisan group of U.S. mayors on Monday accused Washington politicians of being out of touch with the dire economic realities facing states and municipalities as the nation struggles to lift itself out of the recession and the country faces a 9.1 percent unemployment rate.
“The fact is we have a Congress that’s dithering” on job creation, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) told reporters gathered at the White House after a meeting with Obama and Biden. “We cannot in these times allow some to debate on the head of a pin everything that makes us different and not find the common ground … for resolving [the deficit reduction and debt limit hike] in a way that’s smart.”
Villaraigosa urged more investments in workforce training programs and infrastructure.
Earlier Monday the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution calling on Obama and Congress to “speed up the ending” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the first such resolution since the same group 40 years ago called on President Richard Nixon to withdraw all American troops from Vietnam within six months but it was far weaker in its wording.
The amended version says “the drawdown of troops should be done in a measured way that does not destabilize the region.”
Yet after the White House meeting, mayors had some very strong words for Congress when it comes to its focus on paying down the debt.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D) slammed “the lack of reality” that comes out of Washington when lawmakers push for massive cuts, which he argued actually hurt their districts.
“We recognize deficit reduction is important … but when I go back home, no one is going to walk up tome on the streets of Philadelphia and start having a conversation about the debt limit and deficit reduction,” he said. “What they want to know is, mayor, I need a job.”
Mesa Mayor Scott Smith (R) said he left feeling “very encouraged” that the President and Vice President understood that the real pain occurs at the city level when Congress fails to act to spur job creation.
“We plead with the Congress to solve this problem quickly,” he said, referring to the deficit debate, because it will deter businesses from investing.
Smith also praised the bipartisanship displayed in the meeting, saying the mayors were in Washington “to solve problems, we’re not here to score points.”
The mayors expressed similar sentiments at a Jan. 20 White House meeting. In addition to Obama and Biden, White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett attended the meetings.
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