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Obama: Bailout for Main Street.'

Washington (CNNMoney.com) - President Obama on Tuesday outlined a broad new proposal to try to spur jobs and give more help to Main Street consumers and businesses.

In a speech at the Brookings Institution, Obama said he wants to give small businesses tax breaks for new hires and equipment purchases. He also wants to expand American Recovery and Reinvestment Act programs and spend some $50 billion more on roads, bridges, aviation and water projects.

Finally, Obama would offer consumers rebates for retro-fitting their homes to consume less energy.

"Even though we have reduced the deluge of job losses to a relative trickle, we are not yet creating jobs at a pace to help all those families who have been swept up in the flood," Obama said in prepared remarks.

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Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama is leaning toward supporting a congressional Democratic plan to craft a jobs bill by using untapped bailout funds, according to two senior officials familiar with the deliberations.

The officials stressed that no decision has been made by the president, but they noted he is likely to flesh out more details on the emerging economic package next Tuesday when he delivers a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

The new package is expected to be much smaller than the previous $787 billion stimulus plan because of cost concerns at a time of deep government deficits.

Democrats on Capitol Hill and at the White House are considering a jobs package that would include funding for infrastructure projects, direct lending to small businesses, and aid to cash-strapped states.

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"I want to do something I haven't had a chance to do that often during my first year in office, and that is to share some modestly encouraging news on our economy," he told a crowd composed largely of students from Lehigh Carbon Community College.

Official remarks released in advance by the White House did not include the word "modestly."

Noting that the latest jobs report is the country's best since December 2007 - which economists say marked the start of the recession - the president added, "This is good news, just in time for the season of hope."

But he added that "we still have a long way to go," and that one job lost is "one job too many."

"The journey from here will not be without setbacks or struggles," the president said. "But the direction is clear. When you think about how this year began, today's report is a welcome sign that there are better days ahead."

In an exchange that drew laughter from the crowd, Obama took a question from a second-year student who said he has been studying criminology.

"I was wondering if, maybe, if you checked out some of the statistics about legalizing prostitution, gambling, drugs and non-violent crime in order to stimulate some of the economy," the second-year student said.

"That will not be my jobs strategy," Obama responded, smiling.

But he praised the "boldness" of the question. "Part of what you're supposed to do in college is question conventional wisdom. And so you're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing, which is, you know, thinking in new ways about things," he said.

The president then launched into an extensive explanation of his view on jobs and the shape of the U.S. economy.

Vice President Joe Biden calls Friday's unemployment report 'tough.'

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Vice President Joe Biden calls Friday's unemployment report "tough" - but says there are also "some signs of hope today."

Friday's numbers released by the Labor Department show the nation's unemployment rate rising to 9.4 percent in May, the highest level in 25 years. But the report also finds that employers cut 345,000 jobs from their payrolls last month, down from the revised 504,000 job decline in April.

The total is the fewest jobs lost in a month since last September. It's also lower than originally-predicted loss of more than half a million jobs in May.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - The top Republican in the House of Representatives is using Friday's unemployment report to slam President Obama's economic agenda.

Less than an hour after the Department of Labor released its monthly employment report showing unemployment rising to 9.4 percent, House Minority Leader John Boehner released a statement criticizing the Obama administration's record on job creation.

Full Boehner statement:

"Today's unemployment rate is the highest in more than a quarter century, and it's another reminder of how Washington is hanging middle-class Americans out to dry. More than 2.5 million Americans have lost their jobs this year, and what have the Democrats in charge of Washington given them? A trillion-dollar 'stimulus' that isn't producing jobs immediately, as the Administration promised, and that Vice President Biden admits is ripping off the American people. Another $400 billion spending bill loaded with 9,000 unscrutinized earmarks. And bailouts that reward irresponsible behavior and bad business decisions. These policies are harming middle class families when they can least afford it and adding to the massive debt inherited by future generations.

"There is a better way. Doubling down on the Democrats' plans to tax more, spend more, and borrow more from our children and grandchildren is not the right answer to this economic crisis. Republicans have offered better solutions to create more jobs, curb spending, cut taxes, rebuild savings, and control the debt, and we have reached out to our Democratic counterparts to work on these policies in a constructive way. I urge Democrats in Congress and the Administration to finally follow through on their promises of bipartisan cooperation."