WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will propose a major jobs package to help struggling poor and middle class Americans, a top official said Wednesday, as the president wrapped up a three-day bus tour aimed at rallying voters with pledges of help for rural America.
Obama's bus tour across America's heartland and the announcement of the jobs plan came as the campaign for 2012 presidential and congressional elections is heating up and he faces relentless criticism from Republican opponents.
Public concern over Washington's handling of the debt limit continued to be a topic during Obama's road tour.
Republicans in Congress and the Obama administration debated for weeks before reaching a deal on Aug. 2 that would allow the U.S. government to increase its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit by more than $2 trillion. It was approved just hours before the U.S. faced a potential default on its debt.
At a town hall meeting in the western Illinois town of Atkinson, Obama agreed that the lengthy negotiation over lifting the debt ceiling was a "self-inflicted wound" that shouldn't have happened. "It was inexcusable," he said.
And he agreed with a questioner -- who worried that the housing market would continue to be depressed that -- "moving forward, a lot of this has to do with confidence, as you said." Obama said it could take a year or two for the depressed U.S. housing market to right itself.
Obama intends to reveal his jobs proposal in a speech after he and his family return from their summer holiday in Martha's Vineyard, a wealthy island enclave off the Massachusetts coast. Obama is due to leave Washington Thursday for his 10-day vacation.
A White House official told The Associated Press that the president would use some of his vacation time working on a major speech in which he would unveil new ideas for speeding up job growth
When he speaks to the nation shortly after the Sept. 5 Labor Day holiday, Obama is expected to outline a plan that includes tax cuts, jobs-boosting infrastructure ideas and steps that would specifically help the long-term unemployed. The White House official who previewed Obama's plans emphasized that all of his proposals would be fresh ones.
The official said Obama would use the plan to try and seize political advantage by spending the rest of the year pressuring Congress to act on his plan.
The president is weighed down by the stunted U.S. economic recovery, a gyrating stock market and high unemployment that have sent his approval numbers dipping to the 40 per cent range.
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner, said via Twitter that Obama could scrap the speech and just hand over a detailed plan to Congress.
"Seriously, just drop it in the mail. Podium not required," Buck's tweet said.
Republican White House contender Mitt Romney, campaigning in New Hampshire, needled Obama for showing up with too little and too late on the economy.
"But we appreciate the fact that he's going to devote some time to it," Romney said. "Not just going to be on the bus tour, not just going to be vacationing in Martha's Vineyard, but giving some thought to the American people."
