Obama Signs Jobs Bill, Seeks More Cooperation With GOP

President Barack Obama said Thursday he hoped that Republican support this week for a near $18 billion jobs bill would lead to further bipartisan cooperation as the country tries to dig itself out of what he called "the great recession that we've gone through."

"This isn't a game we're playing here," Obama said as he prepared to sign the bill in a Rose Garden ceremony. Efforts to grow jobs "are about the people in this country who are out of work and looking for a job; they're about all Americans, of every race and region and age, who've shared their stories with me over the last year. ... That's who I'm thinking about every morning when I enter into the Oval Office."

Among other things, the legislation, which picked up 11 Republican votes in the Senate on Wednesday, offers tax incentives to businesses that hire workers who have been jobless for at least two months.

Of the Republicans who rallied to the jobs bill, the president said, "they were willing to break out of the partisan morass to help us take this forward step for the American people. I hope this is a prelude to further cooperation in the days and months to come."