Obama Turns to Old Playbook to Add Jobs With Tax Cuts, Spending

President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan will sound familiar to anyone who has followed the government’s struggles to boost the economy through tax cuts and spending on roads, jobless benefits and education.

His call for payroll-tax breaks, extending unemployment assistance, increasing infrastructure spending and aiding cash-strapped state governments amounts to extending, tweaking or reviving policies lawmakers have already tried in the years-long effort to reduce unemployment.