U.S. President Barack Obama will propose a $100 billion tax credit for companies this week to stimulate the faltering U.S. economic recovery, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
According to the newspaper, Obama will use a speech he will deliver on Wednesday in Cleveland, Ohio, to launch the new political initiative. This week, Obama is traveling to two states, Wisconsin and Ohio, which have been hard hit by the recession. His proposal includes raising and permanently increasing tax credits for research and development, which will be awarded to companies developing new technologies in the country and preserving American jobs. It will be funded by closing other loopholes in the corporate tax law, the newspaper further reported, citing an unnamed official from Obama’s cabinet.
The economic team of the U.S. president is considering introducing a whole range of new measures aimed at revitalizing the economy. The White House has already announced that the model for these measures will not be the massive $814 billion aid package from 2009. Data from the Labor Department on Friday showed that 54,000 new jobs were lost last month while the unemployment rate strengthened to 9.6 percent. Although this is significantly less than the 120,000 jobs analysts expected to be lost, the employment rate was not sufficient to employ millions of Americans affected by the crisis. (H)
