On Friday, Congress was urged by President Obama to pass parts of his jobs plan. He warned lawmakers that severe cuts in government spending and reverberations due to the economic downturn in Europe could push the economy in the U.S. into a tailspin.

On Friday, at a White House press conference, the president warned the steep cuts would stall the country’s own recovery and exacerbate the ability for the government to address deficits and debts. Obama says the private sector is helping to create new jobs, but the big challenge to the economy is that local and state governments have been cutting and cutting and going the wrong way.

One of the major factors in the less than stellar jobs reports in recent months has been the cuts in public sector jobs at the local, state and federal levels. Last Friday, the most recent jobs report was released that added just 69,000 jobs to the market, which was well below expectation.

A major factor causing the problem is the layoffs that have been associated with the cuts in government spending. The debate regarding jobs and the increasing national debt is framing the election campaign between President Obama and the Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

The Republicans quickly seized on the press conference of the president. One Republican said that Obama said the private sector was doing fine, but over 23 million Americans still cannot find work and are not doing fine. The Republicans feel Obama has been generally hostile to small business and prevented the economy from rebounding to where it was before the 2009 financial crisis.