President Barack Obama will present a jobs program tonight in Congress that would most likely be debated on through fall until the 2012 presidential campaign. The president proposes extending the payroll tax cut for workers up to 2012 and expand it to cover employers. He would also like to provide tax credits to companies to boost hiring. These would get support from both parties.

Republicans would oppose the president’s proposal to give out billions of federal funds for school and highway construction. The GOP doesn’t want the government to spend more.

President Obama’s jobs package is said to be worth around $300 billion. It would consist of tax cuts that would boost consumer spending and federal spending to improve the employment rate. He hopes that the proposal would spur economic growth.

President Obama wants to take the initiative by announcing his jobs plan while his Republican opponents would look like pessimists who are doing nothing to help solve the economic problem. It’s the president’s strategy to divert attention from his 40 percent approval rating and 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

In 2009, Obama also announced his health care bill at a joint session of Congress. It’s twice the number of single-issue speeches given by any of his recent predecessors. President Clinton gave one on health care as well and President George W. Bush addressed Congress after the 9/11 terror attacks.

The Montana Republicans proposed to set up a state regulated health insurance marketplace but the plan was stopped by a House committee last Wednesday. This shows that there’s division with regards to health care issues in the GOP, which controls both chambers of the Montana Legislature.

According to President Obama’s health care reform law, state-run health care exchanges provide people a choice of health care insurance plans, which has a range of pricing and coverage levels. Republican Representative Tom Berry introduced House Bill 620 as a compromise bill before the federal government’s system is implemented.

House Bill 620 was stopped in the House Business and Labor Committee with a 10-11 vote, with three Republicans voting for the measure. The Republicans leaders criticized Obama’s health care plan, which they say unfairly tax Montanans. Those who oppose the health care law ask the legislators to challenge the law in court.

Barry and other moderate Republicans in Montana didn’t think like their leaders and worked on a compromise that will set up a state regulated exchange if the federal health care plan is implemented.

Barry’s bill is what the Democrats asked for. It would enable the insurance companies with more power when it comes to the regulation of the exchange, which is what the Republicans want to be amended into the federal health care law. But this was not enough to sway the other Republicans from approving the bill.

The House voted for the repeal of the health care law with the final count of 245-189. Members followed party lines, with the Republicans outnumbering the Democrats. Republican Representatives are happy with the result even though the Senate Democrats stated that they will uphold the health care act.

Republican Representative Walter B. Jones, co-sponsor of the repeal bill, was quoted as saying that the vote symbolizes the citizens’ distaste for the Obama administration’s takeover of the health care system.

Democratic Representative G. K. Butterfield has an opposite view on the vote. He stated that the repeal of the health care law will put the insurance companies back in charge of health care in the United States.

Now that congress successfully voted for the repeal of the health care law, the Senate will now have to tackle the issue. Democratic Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina said that health care reform is needed by the country. Repealing the law will increase the deficit by as much as $230 billion over the next ten years.

People expect the repeal law not to prosper in the Senate because it supports the health care reform and President Obama vowed to stop any repeal attempts.