Obama, with his approval ratings falling, is set to propose short-term measures to boost hiring and call on a congressional panel to deliver more than the $1.5 trillion in savings its members seek by Nov. 23, partly through increased tax revenue.

“When Congress gets back in September, my basic argument to them is this: we should not have to choose between getting our fiscal house in order and jobs and growth. We can’t afford to do just one or the other, we’ve got to do both,” Obama said at a town-hall style meeting in Illinois.

The White House offered scant details on what new initiatives Obama would offer to keep the economy from diving back into recession. Administration officials said the plan is still a work in progress.

Obama’s insistence that taxes be a part of any long-term plan to improve America’s fiscal health could mean his proposal goes nowhere.

Republicans, who control the House of Representatives and are intent on making Obama a one-term president, repeated their opposition to any new taxes and criticized the suggestion of new economic stimulus spending.

Even a failure could play into Obama’s hands politically as he tries to convince voters that Republican refusal to compromise is to blame for America’s fiscal and economic mess.

“Frankly we could do a lot more if we got Congress’ cooperation,” Obama said.

“These aren’t radical ideas. I mean building roads, when did that become a partisan issue? Putting folks back to work,” he said.

“Dwight Eisenhower built the interstate highway system. Last time I checked he was a very popular Republican.”

A Gallup poll completed on Saturday showed Obama with a 39 percent approval rating — the lowest of his presidency.

Obama faces serious doubts about his economic leadership in the wake of the United States’ first credit rating downgrade and with unemployment stuck above 9 percent, a major impediment to his re-election prospects next year.

Obama has been criticized in recent weeks by political opponents, allies on the left and Wall Street.

Republicans say he has no plan to reduce unemployment while some Democrats say he has not been aggressive enough in promoting the need for stimulus spending to keep the economy moving.

Republicans on Wednesday were quick to criticize what they said sounded like an attempt to fluff up tired ideas without a clear plan on how to help the economy and curb spending.

“To get our economy moving, what the American people need from the president is leadership and serious solutions that reflect a true change in his approach to our economy and the role of government,” said House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress.

In his speech after the Sept. 5 Labor Day holiday, Obama will outline measures to boost hiring and find budget savings that surpass the $1.5 trillion goal of a new congressional deficit-cutting committee, White House officials said.

The officials said he will renew his call for Congress to extend a payroll tax cut — a measure the White House says would encourage businesses to increase hiring but that economists say is likely to make little difference to an economy that is struggling.

The plan also will include new ideas to accelerate job growth in the short term, according to administration officials.

The White House would not provide details.

Administration officials said the plan would include new tax breaks, construction projects and support for sectors of the economy that are struggling.

Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House behind Boehner, said in a memo to his fellow Republicans that the White House should avoid talking about new spending.

“We must put an end to the policy uncertainty constantly being driven by this administration,” Cantor said in the memo. “That means stopping the discussions of new stimulus spending with money that we simply do not have.”

Obama’s speech also will lay out a long-term deficit reduction package based on the $4 trillion deal he tried to broker with Boehner last month to avert default on US debt obligations, administration officials said.

That agreement would have imposed roughly $3 trillion in spending cuts — including curbs on social programs such as Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly — and $1 trillion in revenue increases, mostly through tax reform.

When their talks failed in July, Republicans and Democrats forged a lesser agreement that raised the US debt ceiling in time to avoid default but failed to stop ratings agency S&P from stripping America of its top-notch AAA credit rating.

The agreement created a powerful 12-member congressional panel given the task of finding up to $1.5 trillion or more in savings to tackle the deficit. If it fails to agree on at least $1.2 trillion in savings, automatic spending cuts that hit a wide range of government programs would be triggered.

The debt-ceiling battle weakened Obama politically, and he has gotten little lift from his current campaign-style bus tour through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois where he has been seeking to convince Americans that Republicans are to blame and he has ideas to create jobs.

But he has little positive news to work with.

After avoiding default, S&P downgraded the US rating, the government revised down economic figures to show a highly fragile recovery and global stock markets tanked.