Obama: More jobs from payroll-tax package than Keystone approval

A pending legislative package to extend the payroll tax credit and unemployment insurance will create more jobs than the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, President Obama said Thursday.

“[H]ere’s what I know: However many jobs might be generated by a Keystone pipeline, they're going to be a lot fewer than the jobs that are created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance,” Obama told reporters Thursday at the White House.

Obama’s remarks come a day after he threatened to veto the payroll tax credit extension if House Republicans attach a measure that forces the administration to approve the pipeline project, which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas.

Republicans have pummeled Obama in recent weeks over his administration’s move to punt a final decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 election while the State Department reviews alternative routes. The GOP argues that approval of the pipeline will boost the economy and create thousands of jobs, an assertion that critics of the project reject.

“If President Obama threatens to veto it over a provision that creates American jobs, that’s a fight we’re ready to have,” Michael Steel, House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman, said Wednesday after Obama's veto threat.

Obama blasted Republicans Thursday for seeking to attach other measures to the payroll tax package, including language to approve the pipeline project and delay Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

“So when I hear the Speaker or the Senate Republican leader wanting to dicker, wanting to see what can they extract from us in order to get this done, my response to them is, just do the right thing: Focus on the American people, focus on the economy right now,” Obama said.

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