WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama's job-creation package effectively fell to pieces Monday as a top Republican lawmaker said the House of Representatives will only pass portions of the $447 billion measure.
Monday's developments made plain what many analysts have believed for weeks -- that Washington is too divided to take any significant steps to lower the 9.1 percent unemployment rate before the 2012 congressional and presidential elections.
"At this point I think that Washington has become so dysfunctional that we've got to start focusing on the incremental progress we can make," said Representative Eric Cantor, the chamber's No. 2 Republican.
"Both sides want to do the big, bold things -- the problem is they look vastly different," he said.
Obama said he would be willing to consider a piecemeal approach, even as he continued to press lawmakers for a vote on his signature legislation that could be central to his re-election prospects.
"If there are aspects of the bill that they don't like, they should tell us what it is they are not willing to go for, they should tell us what it is they are prepared to see move forward," he told reporters.
The Republican-controlled House will not hold a vote on the entire bill, Cantor said. Asked if it was effectively dead, Cantor said: "Yes."
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would schedule a vote later this month, but prospects for passage appeared doubtful as many Democrats oppose the tax increases Obama has proposed to pay for it.
"Nobody is all that excited about the president's jobs bill," a senior Democratic aide said.
Since unveiling the plan in a high-profile speech to Congress last month, Obama has promoted the package in campaign-style rallies across the country as he tries to show voters he is taking steps to spur the sluggish economy.
House Republicans have advanced their own job-creation agenda centered around relaxed pollution regulations.
At the same time, they have said they are willing to work with Obama whenever possible, seeking to lower the temperature since a bruising budget battle in August led to a downgrade in the United States' credit rating for the first time.
HOUSE WILL PASS ONE PIECE OF THE PACKAGE
Cantor said the House would pass one element of Obama's jobs package this month: a provision that allows government contractors to collect all the money that is due to them, rather than having 3 percent automatically withheld for taxes.
That element would cost about $14 billion over 10 years -- a tiny fraction of the entire jobs bill, which is centered around a payroll tax cut, infrastructure spending and aid to cash-strapped state and local governments.
Republicans also will work with Obama to pass long-stalled trade agreements, Cantor said.
On the other side of the Capitol, Reid said on the Senate floor: "Members of both parties should rally behind the common-sense, bipartisan approach of this legislation."
Aides from both parties said the bill would probably fall short.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro and Kevin Drawbaugh; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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