United States: "Enough about the debt, we must talk about jobs"

Barack Obama urged, Tuesday, August 2, Congress to address the economy and job creation, after the final adoption of a text to the Senate avoid a default in the United States while providing for reductions budget. The president quickly passed the agreement, just hours before the deadline set by the Treasury on Tuesday at midnight. Senators approved the text by 74 votes against 26, the day after its adoption in the House of Representatives by 269 votes against 161.

The threat of default is ruled out until at least 2013, Obama scolded Congress for having launched a war of trenches on deficits and public spending rather than focusing on unemployment. "We must do everything we can to grow this economy and put America to work, the president said. Everybody has to get started. It is only justice."

Worrying indicator

In the Senate, Majority Leader Democrat Harry Reid, echoed the president: "The number one job of Congress should be to create jobs for Americans." Mr Reid also announced that the first text that would address the Senate on his return from leave in September would be a bill on patents, which the Democrats hope to make job creation. On the side of the House of Representatives, the Democratic minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, hit hard by running: "Enough about the debt. We must talk about jobs."

The U.S. economy is indeed in bad shape, with an unemployment rate of 9.2% growth, low, 1.3%. And the latest indicators are not reassuring: household consumption fell by 0.2%, according to data released Tuesday in June (read the editorial of the World: "After the debt, the stagnation awaits Obama"). And markets were not soothed by the agreement on debt approved Tuesday night. The New York Stock Exchange ended down sharply: the Dow Jones lost 2.19% and the Nasdaq, 2.75%. Asian markets followed the same path at the opening Wednesday: Tokyo was down 1.42% and Hong Kong, 1.97%.

NON-TAX INCREASE, THE MAIN CRITICISM

Tuesday, Moody's has raised its outlook from "stable" to "negative", saying that the measures passed do not necessarily sufficient to improve the state of U.S. public finances.

"This is not the deficit reduction plan that I wrote," said the Republican minority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, whose party would have liked more budget cuts. As for the Senate Democrats, Harry Reid said that a majority "believe that this arrangement is unfair because the rich have not helped." The text contains no tax increases, a point that Obama had to give in to pressure from Republicans. According to a poll CNN-Opinion Research poll, 60% of Americans disapprove of the fact that the text contains no tax increases for the wealthy.