Obama seeks votes on jobs, piece by piece

FLETCHER, N.C. (AP) — Railing against Republicans, President Barack Obama on Monday pushed for a jobs package that Congress is splintering into pieces, as Senate Democrats planned action first on a longshot plan to help states hire teachers, police and firefighters. In campaign mode on the road, Obama accused Republicans senators of saying no to helping Americans.

With the president's plan for one big bill now dead, the Senatebegan moving to take up parts of it. Yet given that the Senate is likely to be consumed this week with an overdue spending bill — and then taking a vacation next week — any votes may be not take place until November.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid planned to announce on Monday that the chamber would move first on the aid to states. Obama, on a bus tour through the politically crucial states of North Carolina and Virginia, made a coordinated push for that element of his bill and mocked Republicans for forcing a piece-by-piece approach to his jobs legislation.

Republicans in the Senate rejected consideration of his whole $447 billion plan last week.

"Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole thing at once, so we're going to break it up into bite-size pieces," Obama said from his first stop in Western North Carolina before getting on his black-tinted bus and heading east across the state.

Obama is pitching a $35 billion proposal of aid to states, one slice of his overall bill. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House anticipated action "very soon."

But the state aid package faces long odds on Capitol Hill.

It is a non-starter in the GOP-controlled House and is sure to face a vote-blocking filibuster in the Senate, which would require 60 votes to overcome. Last year, when Senate Democrats controlled 59 votes, moderate Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine voted with Democrats to pass a $26 billion state aid package. But with their numbers down to 53, Democrats appear stuck.

Outside Asheville, N.C. a supportive crowd in broke into a chant of "four more years" for Obama. Said the president in response: "I appreciate the four more years, but right now I'm thinking about the next thirteen months."