President Barack Obama has previewed his jobs creation bill and now he is going to be forced to defend it. The House Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor have both been very vocally opposed to the proposal as it is currently written and from every indication, they are representative of the majority of the Republicans.

The sticking point to Obama’s proposal, according to the Republicans is the way it will currently be funded. The nearly $500 billion proposal will be funded by ending the tax relief packages for corporations and the wealthiest Americans by the end of the next year as well as closing a number of specific tax loopholes. But, Obama said, in defense of the plan, if the special joint Congressional commission can come up with a plan that relieves a bigger chunk of the current federal deficit, then less funding will be needed for the plan in the first place.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor expressed great concern about the plan in a statement, saying that asking any potential job creators to pay a higher amount of taxes while at the same time still working to create these new jobs was ludicrous at best.

Obama’s poll numbers are very low at this point, causing his reelection team to have some major concerns. There are worries that if the jobs proposal gets shot down or fails to produce any visible, viable results that any attempts at holding on to his office will fail miserably. The President has been quick to point out that the next election is over a year away and that it is not fair for the American people for the Republicans to hold jobs creation and the economic future of the country at bay just for pure politics. While that election is fourteen months away, the American people do not have the luxury of waiting around for that long.

Part of the job proposal will include measures to retain teachers across the nation, slowing the major layoffs being faced by many school districts because of budget cuts. Across America, some 85,000 school employees have been relieved of their job duties in the previous year. Over 200,000 have lost their jobs since 2008.  Money was released last year, just before the school year began to save teaching jobs as well as other positions but with most districts still facing major budget shortfalls, more jobs are on the chopping block.

Some are concerned that the proposal is a last ditch effort to get popularity points back for the President but one that has zero hope at all of being passed. Whether it is a workable plan remains to be seen- the unemployment numbers as well as the poor state of the economy are going to make any type of plan a risky venture at best. Asking the people who are supposed to create the jobs to also pay for the right to do so might make it even riskier.