- — President Barack Obama’s Thursday speech on job creation was met with a mixture of derision from the Right and praise from the Left on Friday, though the president’s critics say it created more questions than answers.

Alabama’s congressional leaders sounded off Friday on the president’s proposal, which he said would cut payroll taxes and place a greater emphasis on infrastructure jobs like building new roads and schools.

The president’s Republican foes’ primary concern was how the president planned to pay for his ambitious bill.

Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, was receptive to Obama’s proposals for lower business and payroll taxes, but not to new spending. Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions said Obama’s plan would add even more to the national debt.

Rep. Terri Sewell of Birmingham, the delegation’s lone Democrat, praised the plan as being designed to stimulate job creation and strengthen economic development.

Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, who has been vocal in his criticism of Obama’s economic initiatives, said he feels the president does not have a firm grasp on how a free enterprise economy works.

“As a consequence, the proposals he talks about are not addressing the underlying problems with our economy,” he said, adding that Obama’s plan for roads and schools would equate to short-term job gains. “Those are all one-and-done jobs. You hire someone for six months or a year and then you fire them. The bulk majority of what he’s talking about is designed to, at best, give a short-term improvement to unemployment so he will look better on election day.”

If Obama’s speech was given to instill confidence in an economy that some fear is heading for another recession, it was not reflected in the stock market. At the close of trading Friday, the Dow Jones Index was down 340 points.

Two points about the speech Brooks took issue with was the promise of payroll tax reductions and where funding for the plan would come from.

“It appears he simply wants to increase our national debt, which is one of the factors that put us in this economic position,” he said. “What happens when we blow through another $450 billion stimulus? That makes things worse instead of better over the long haul.”

He said the president’s talk of cutting payroll taxes amounts to nothing more than reduction in Medicare and Social Security, which are taken out of every U.S. worker’s paycheck. If the president wanted to put Americans back to work, Brooks said, he would have addressed other issues instead.

“If the president had said ‘I’m going to be aggressive about moving illegal aliens from America,’ that’s substantive,” he said. “If he had said ‘I’m going to suspend Obamacare, pending the Supreme Court resolution of the issue,’ that would make business more comfortable about hiring employees because they’d have a better handle on their employment costs. There’s very little in the president’s speech that does that.”

On Friday, State Agricultural Commissioner John McMillan said Obama’s proposal has the potential to bring as many as 15,000 jobs to the state if Congress ratifies three free trade agreements.

Part of Obama’s proposal includes greater trading capacities with foreign countries that would send more American-made products — like Fords and Chevrolets — to the countries of Panama, Colombia and South Korea.

“U.S. Commerce Department officials estimate 250,000 new American jobs would result from ratification of the Free Trade Agreement with South Korea,” McMillan said in a press release. “Alabama is well positioned to benefit from expanded trade with South Korea, with whom we have good relationships.”

Brooks said because the president has not put forth an actual proposal, his talk of increased automotive export amounted to a “throw-in” remark.

“There’s literally nothing in his speech that makes American manufacturers competitive,” he said.

The partisan divide between congressional Republicans and Democrats is arguably wider now that at any point in Obama’s presidency. With an approval rating of less than 30 percent, the president continues to struggle to make amends with lawmakers left reeling after the debt ceiling fight.

Brooks said he believes the divide can be bridged, but only if the president is willing to take advice from those who understand the nation’s economy.

“He is either getting very bad advice or he’s disregarding good advice on how the free enterprise system works,” he said.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.