President Barack Obama has been traveling the country in the last few days aiming to drum up support for the “>American Jobs Act, the plan he put forth intended to spur the economy and lower unemployment in a joint session speech last month. This is Obama’s first speech since announce the $450 Billion plan, which appears to already be facing predictable opposition from House GOP leaders like Eric Cantor.

At the center of the debate over America’s stagnant economy, high unemployment, and deficit spending is the role of tax rates. President Obama has recently proposed a jobs bill designed to increase work force through infrastructure projects, paid for by the closing of some corporate tax loopholes, and yes, increasing some tax rates on the super wealthy. Obama’s detractors, primarily the GOP, have stated that it’s the super wealthy and corporations that are providing jobs, and raising their taxes would only hurt the economy. Last night, Rachel Maddow challenged that assertion effectively, using the privately held Koch Industries as the avatar for her supposition that the conservative rhetoric just doesn’t add up.

GOP leadership appears to have started something of a coordinated effort to present their alternative to President Obama‘s America Jobs Act presented last week during an address to a joint session of Congress. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today and didn’t just deride the White House jobs bill — though he was critical on what he deemed “class warfare” political rhetoric. Rather, Ryan presented his own plan and focused on some similarities to the White House plan. Could this be the beginning of a compromise?

“If you love me, you’ve got to help me pass this bill,” President Barack Obama told large crowds at North Carolina State University today, upping his six day and multi-state “pass this bill” push with a more personal plea. Addressing a crowd of more than 9,000 on a 90-degree day in an air condition-less auditorium with [...]

“The President has a package, and the package works together,” said top Obama strategist David Axelrod ABC’s Good Morning America, insisting, as the White House adamantly has, that congress pass the America Jobs Act quickly and in whole. “We want them to act now on this package,” he said. “We are not in negotiation to break up the package. And it’s not an a la carte menu. It’s a strategy to get this country moving.”

“I think the President’s team has been rather brilliant in putting this one together,” said former DNC chair Howard Dean, speaking on the American Jobs Act with Lawrence O’Donnell last night, sounding confident and convinced that the bill puts sufficient pressure on Republicans to get passed. “It would be hard to devise a better bill than this to put these guys on the griddle,” he said. “They’re in big trouble”