Though it is overflowing, there is nothing more important on Barack Obama's plate than improving the economy.

So today, the President gives a speech at 11:15 a.m. at the Brookings Institute on jobs.

Among the initiatives the president will discuss today are steps to help small businesses grow and hire new staff, spending to modernize roads, railways, bridges and tunnels, airports and seaports and a new program to provide rebates for consumers who retrofit their homes to become more energy efficient, the official said. She did not release further details.

But what a lot of folks want to know is what is to happen with money coming back from the TARP. You know, the plan that gave $700 billion to the banks last year? There's been talk of using some of that money, perhaps $200 billion, for a second stimulus.

Per the L.A. Times,

Some administration officials support using a portion of TARP money to help pay for the new government job-creation efforts. Aides said such a move would send the message to Americans that their economic survival is as important as that of Wall Street executives and automakers.

CL asked Florida GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio yesterday what he thinks should be done with the TARP money?

He didn't appear to be thinking too favorably to a jobs program, saying "unless it’s going to be some type of permanent tax cuts that will lead to economic investment, I’m not sure what type of jobs program they have in mind, " he said, adding, " I mean, caulking windows for your home, might be a good idea from an energy perspective but not from a job creating perspective. From a job creating perspective things like permanent tax cuts that create the kind of environment where people take money out of the bank and invest it in a new business (or expand it in an existing one) ..so I think that’s where they’re emphasis should be. Or quite frankly, going after deficit reduction …either one of those would be beneficial to the long term health fo the federal budget."

In his speech that he gave to the New Tampa Rotary Club yesterday, Rubio sounded alarms about the fiscal debt the country now faces.

This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2009.