President Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed spending more on creating jobs in exchange for an overhaul of business taxes. But the idea quickly devolved into the type of partisan finger-pointing that shows why any agreement will be so difficult.
With great fanfare, Obama and his aides promoted what they called a new "grand bargain" that would sidestep disagreements and focus on a longtime Republican goal: a rewrite of the business tax code to lower corporate rates.
The overhaul, administration officials said, would generate new revenue that could be used to pay for Obama's priorities, including hiring workers to build roads, bridges and other infrastructure.