WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama called for a major new burst of federal spending Tuesday, perhaps $150 billion or more, aiming to jolt the wobbly economy into a stronger recovery and reduce painfully persistent double-digit unemployment.
More than 7 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began two years ago, and the jobless rate stands at 10 percent, statistics Obama called "staggering."
He said the U.S. has had to "spend our way out of this recession," though he insisted, despite Republican criticism, that he is aware of the need to confront soaring deficits.
Congressional approval would be required for the new spending.
"We avoided the depression many feared," Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But, he said, "Our work is far from done."
It was the third time in a week the president had presided over a high-profile event on jobs, responding to rising pleas in Congress that he spend more time discussing unemployment as midterm election season draws near.
Obama proposed new spending for highway and bridge construction, for small business tax cuts and for retrofitting millions of homes to make them more energy-efficient. He said he wanted to extend economic stimulus programs to keep unemployment insurance from expiring for millions of out-of-work Americans and to help laid-off workers keep their health insurance. He proposed an additional $250 in stimulus spending for all seniors and veterans and aid to state and local governments to discourage them from laying off teachers, police officers and firefighters.
He did not give a price tag for the new package but said he would work with Congress on deciding how to pay for it.
On Capitol Hill, estimates of a potential jobs bill range from $75 billion to $150 billion, said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.
"100 billion, 150 billion, 75 billion - those are all figures that are being talked about," Hoyer told reporters.
Those billions would be on top of money for separate legislation for safety-net initiatives such as extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and providing them health insurance subsidies.
Some lawmakers put the total cost of the new proposals at $200 billion or more.
White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said the White House is considering spending $50 billion on infrastructure projects alone such as roads and bridges and water projects. Other figures, he said in an interview with The Associated Press, would be worked out with Congress.
Republicans ridiculed the president's speech and his parallel call for doing more to hold down government deficits.
"At least the president's proposal will result in one new job - he'll need to hire a magician to make this new deficit spending appear fiscally responsible," said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio declared the president "out of ideas and out of touch."
While Obama did not propose the kind of direct federal public works jobs that were created in the 1930s, he said government action could set the stage for more job creation by private business. Many of his proposals would extend or expand programs included in the mammoth $787 billion stimulus package passed last winter.
He acknowledged worries over the nation's growing debt, but he said critics present a "false choice" between paying down deficits and investing in job creation and economic growth.
"Even as we have had to spend our way out of this recession in the near term, we have begun to make the hard choices necessary to get our country on a more stable fiscal footing in the long run," he said.
To find money to pay for the new programs, the administration is pointing to the Treasury Department's report on Monday that it expects to get back $200 billion in taxpayer-approved bank bailout funds faster than expected.
Obama suggested that this windfall would help the government spend money on job creation at the same time it eats into the nation's debt, which now totals $12 trillion.
But Republicans cried foul, claiming that the leftover and repaid Troubled Asset Relief Program money must be used exclusively for deficit reduction or additional bank bailouts, as the law setting it up spells out.
"TARP was a loan - a loan to be paid back," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "So I don't think raiding a loan program to launch another spending spree is the best way to create jobs."
