(RTTNews) -  The White House signaled Tuesday that they would likely seek to extend unemployment benefits and other social safety net measures.

However, discussions have fallen short of calling for another stimulus measure, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

"We're working in conjunction with, and I think there's bipartisan agreement to extend safety-net to ensure that those that have fallen on hard times and have lost their job have the benefits they need to provide for their families," Gibbs said.

Gibbs said that the administration would also favor extending tax credits to first time homebuyers, but he hesitated to outline either a legislative timetable or other approaches that the president would favor.

"I don't know the particulars that are being discussed in Congress in terms of each of the proposals," he said. "Obviously we're going to get to a point at which some extension, legislatively, has to be entered into."

Gibbs also rejected suggestions that the earlier stimulus efforts had failed to create and save jobs, pointing to aid to states that had prevented layoffs of teachers and emergency responders.
"The recession didn't start in mid-February. We didn't start losing jobs January 21st," he said. "The recovery plan was not intended to dollar-for-dollar fill the gap or the hole that was created in the downturn in our economy -- which I think we said was about a $2 trillion gap -- 3 million jobs does not exceed the number that have been lost as a result of this recession going back to December of 2007."

The White House will also continue to work with Congressional leaders as they craft a final version of Obama's landmark health reform legislation, but Gibbs emphasized that it would be up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to hammer out the final details.

"Senator Reid is, as the leader of the Senate, going to make decisions that merge two pieces of legislation in conjunction with members of both committees that have been working on this legislation, and I assume that they'll ask the White House for varying opinions on different issues," he said.

He added, "We're working through the process in the fifth committee of jurisdiction, and the Senate will merge these two pieces of legislation, and will head to the floor."

Gibbs also highlighted an increasing number of Republicans outside of Washington that have come out in support of reform efforts, suggesting that GOP Congressional leaders were out of touch in their staunch opposition to Democratic reforms.

 1   2   Next Page