Obama seeks bipartisan job-boosting effort

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday called for bipartisan cooperation on his newly-launched job-creating plan in a obviously divided political sentiment.

"It's no secret that there's been less than full bipartisan support for the Recovery Act and some of the steps that have broken the freefall of our economy," Obama said after meeting with congressional Democrats and Republicans.

"But my hope is that as we move forward, we can do so together, recognizing that we have a shred responsibility to meet our economic challenges on behalf of all Americans."

"I'm not going to rest until every American who's looking for work can find a job," Obama said.

Democrat Obama on Tuesday unveiled a series of initiatives to create jobs, including helping small businesses add staff and grow, updating transportation infrastructure, and making homes energy-efficient.

In order to control deficit, the Obama administration planned to use part of the unspent money from the government's 700-billion-dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which was launched in October 2008.

Critics from the Republican said that using the money from the financial bailout program to create job is not legitimate. Besides, the job plan is actually another stimulus package, which demonstrated the first stimulus plan launched in February was not effective. They also argued that the new plan will add more burden to the taxpayers in the end.

Unemployment, currently standing at 10 percent, is a key concern of the Obama administration.

Obama held a job summit at the White House last Thursday to seek new ideas about creating jobs.