President wants to extend tax breaks for small business, invest in infrastructure and give rebates to consumers who make homes energy efficient.

Obama: 'We are not yet creating jobs at a pace to help all those families' hurt by recession.

By Jennifer Liberto, CNNMoney.com senior writer

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. "And it speaks to an urgent need to accelerate job growth in the short term while laying a new foundation for lasting economic growth."

Obama did not give a price tag for his proposals but pointed out that there is more wiggle room in the federal budget since the 2008 financial system bailout program will cost $200 billion less than expected.

"This gives us a chance to pay down the deficit faster than we thought possible and to shift funds that would have gone to help the banks on Wall Street to help create jobs on Main Street," Obama said.

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been talking for the past several weeks about tapping the Troubled Asset Relief Program to help Main Street.

But top White House officials said Tuesday that they don't have the authority to directly use funds set aside for the $700 billion bailout on infrastructure projects, for instance.

"Tim Geithner can't spend TARP dollars on highways," a White House official said in a media briefing. "What we're talking about is the fiscal room we have in terms of the overall borrowing need for the country There's now more space to do things on jobs."

On Capitol Hill, Democratic House leaders have been discussing spending as much as $70 billion to pay for infrastructure projects to create jobs, according to senior Democratic House aides.

Republicans have blasted the idea of tapping any unexpected fiscal headroom from TARP for job creation. Instead, they say that any gains on government investments in banks or unexpected savings should be used to pay down the skyrocketing deficit.

"This makes me so angry. I was there. I know all about TARP," House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said on Tuesday. "First, it was never intended that all this money would ever have to be spent. But any money that wasn't spent was to go to the deficit. And the idea of taking this money and spending it is repulsive."

Three top Senate Republicans were expected later Tuesday to hold a press conference criticizing the president's proposal and accuse the administration of creating another stimulus package.

During his speech, Obama stressed that it was equally critical to both reduce debts and spend more to create jobs. He insisted that both could be done at the same time.

"There are those who claim we have to choose between paying down our deficits on the one hand, and investing in job creation and economic growth on the other - but this is a false choice," Obama said.