CNN analysts: Reaction to Obama jobs speech

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Thursday laid out his $447 billion economic plan before a joint session of Congress, saying that lawmakers should put the interests of the American people before politics.

"There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation," the president said. "Everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both Democrats and Republicans -- including many who sit here tonight. And everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything," Obama said.

Obama said he will ask Congress to increase the $1.5 trillion target in deficit reduction being pursued by a special joint congressional committee to cover the cost of the plan and propose his own deficit-reduction plan on September 19 that would reform entitlement programs such as Medicare while changing the tax system to end loopholes, lower the corporate tax rate and increase taxes for the wealthy.

Obama, in essence, resurrected his push for a so-called "grand bargain" -- a comprehensive deficit reduction package that includes all the drivers of government spending and deficits, including those traditionally favored and protected by both parties.

Here's how CNN's analysts and contributors reacted to the president's speech:

Cornell Belcher, Democratic strategist and CNN contributor

Most of these plans, a balanced approach to this, most of this stuff quite frankly should have bipartisan support because a lot of this stuff, Republicans have supported in the past. There's nothing insane or crazy about the idea that we have to build our roads, we have to improve our infrastructure and we have to put our teachers back to work, at the same time that China and India are hiring more teachers, we're laying off teachers. There's nothing crazy about that as an idea. It's a solid idea.

Erick Erickson, CNN contributor and RedState.com blogger

I heard this speech before. I heard it in January of 2011, I heard it in January of 2010 and February of 2009.

You know, we wouldn't have had this speech tonight had those last three speeches done anything, particularly those first two when the Democrats controlled Congress and the White House.

David Frum, CNN contributor and former George W. Bush staffer

This speech was very effective. We can already see it beginning to have its effect. Eric Cantor and John Boehner said they would pass some of the proposals the president is proposing. Whether that ultimately happens, we don't know. But they have been put into a situation where they understand they can't afford to look as uncooperative as they did during the debt ceiling battle. So the president has achieved something there.

The Republicans will then resent that even more. Of course, this speech is political. The president is framing an argument. But it is a political maneuver that is working. It will produce a countereffect because Republicans will resent it. It could also have some beneficial effect on the economy and that really is the most important thing of all that. Payroll tax cut is a good idea. It should have been bigger and done earlier. Infrastructure spending works, that's what the economists tell us.

Gloria Borger, CNN chief political analyst

"This is game on. The president tonight was really trying to appeal not to Erick Erickson, you know, he's trying to appeal to independent voters, and he's trying to come across as the reasonable leader. Don't forget, his leadership numbers have suffered lately, particularly after the debt ceiling [standoff in Congress]. And one way he can do that is to challenge Republicans, lay down a very clear plan and say you should pass it, you should pass it, this makes a lot of sense to me, and hope that it makes a lot of sense to the independent voters out there who will then put pressure on Republicans in Congress.

The missing part here, which I want to see, is when the president is going to talk on September 19 about how he intends to pay for it and what he's going to say to that joint committee [on reducing the deficit]. And how he's going to pay for this $450 billion or whatever it turns out to be. That's something the American people need to hear, also.

But for tonight, he was very concise, very clear, told them he's going to send up legislation, which is something we also haven't seen from this president, and say here's what I want. Now you go do it. So, game on.

Paul Begala, Democratic strategist and CNN contributor

I advise a liberal PAC that's pro-Obama. We're independent of the party or the president's campaign, but our PAC actually did some focus groups tonight. In Richmond, Virginia, in Eric Cantor's district with swing voters, people were disaffected who had fallen out of favor of President Obama, they don't like him anymore and our pollster said that it went over very well.

He showed a lot of strength, they liked him personally. Most interesting to me on the issue front, what they liked -- not the best but what they especially liked -- is when he paired up ending tax breaks for the wealthiest with funding education. It always hurts Democrats when Republicans say we're big spenders, it's true, but it always hurts Republicans when we say they coddle the rich. So the president has linked those two up in a very effective way. At least, from the swing voters that my group tested, they loved it.