President Barack Obama’s plan to create jobs is better than the alternatives that Republicans are offering. It attempts to immediately get more people working.

Obama’s plan rests on a proven strategy to create jobs using government initiative and direct action. The plan would hire more state and local government workers to repair the nation’s poor infrastructure. Compared to the rest of the world, the United States is falling far behind in key areas, like education, transportation and infrastructure. Obama’s plan attempts to solve the problem. The government will spend more money.

The plan doesn’t depend on the unpredictable strategy of lowering taxes for the wealthy. The rich may or may not decide to use their excess money to create jobs. The strategy has already been attempted and failed in the current George W. Bush tax cuts. It need not continue, nor should tax loopholes for billion-dollar corporations. The Obama plan advantages those who are forced to spend their money, not those who can keep saving it.

The biggest problem Obama’s and Mitt Romney’s plans face is actually getting them passed and implemented. Division in both the House and Senate means these plans will go nowhere unless they receive bipartisan support. What would be satisfying to all Americans is not a plan that is based in rigid ideology, but that is appealing to both parties.

Harmen Rockler is a senior newspaper journalism and political science major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at horockle@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @LeftofBoston.