2010-09-07 09:46

US President Barack Obama (C) delivers remarks on the latest employment statistics released on Friday, from the Rose Garden of the White House, September 3, 2010. [Agencies]

Administration officials are hunting broadly for ways to revive the economy. But they are likely to drop a separate proposal to renew a law exempting companies from paying federal pension taxes on any unemployed workers they hire, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision was not final.

Casual in brown slacks and open-collar white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, Obama took a populist tack in his speech, mixing attacks on Republicans with praise for working-class and middle-class Americans.

He said he'd "keep fighting, every single day, every single hour, every single minute to turn this economy around." He said interest groups he has battled "talk about me like a dog."

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He also acknowledged that the past eight months of modest private-sector job growth hasn't been enough to bring down the unemployment rate. He said economic problems facing families today are "more serious than ever," and seemed to ask the audience in Milwaukee, and voters nationwide, for patience.

"Now here's the honest truth, the plain truth. There's no silver bullet, there's no quick fix to these problems," he said, adding that it will take time to "reverse the damage of a decade worth of policies" that caused the recession.

Administration officials said the transportation plan's initial $50 billion would be the beginning of a six-year program of transportation improvements, but they did not give an overall figure. The proposal has a longer-range focus than last year's economic stimulus bill, which was more targeted on immediate job creation.

The plan calls for rebuilding 150,000 miles (241,400 kilometers) of roads; building and maintaining 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) of rail lines and 150 miles (240 kilometers) of airport runways, and installing a new air navigation system to reduce travel times and delays.

Obama also called for a permanent funding mechanism, an infrastructure bank, to focus on paying for national and regional infrastructure projects. Officials provided few details of how the bank would work.

Obama said the proposal would be fully paid for. In an earlier briefing for reporters, administration officials said Obama would pay for the program by asking lawmakers to close tax breaks for oil and gas companies and multinational corporations.

The infrastructure spending is part of a package of economic proposals to be announced this week by Obama, who is feeling heat from fellow Democrats and a jittery public to show that he is focused on pumping life into the economic recovery and shrinking an unemployment rate long stuck near 10 percent.

Audience members cheer as US President Barack Obama attends the Milwaukee Laborfest event in Wisconsin to celebrate Labor Day, September 6, 2010. [Agencies]