As Obama puts the finishing touches on the speech next week on his ideas for reviving the jobs market and also the economy, he is facing rising pressure from Democrats to push for aggressive measures even if those proposals could be declared dead on arrival by Republicans in Congress.
Supporters are calling on him to avoid an overly cautious approach and spell out an economic vision that may frame his argument for re-election in 2012.
"If the administration limits itself to only those proposals that may pass the Republican House, that will shift the package to the correct and, frankly, limit the ability of the president to make a obvious case for job creation, " said Neera Tanden, a former domestic policy adviser to Obama now in the Centre for American Progress think tank.
William Galston, a former Clinton administration official now in the Brookings Institution, said there has been a "lack of presidential clarity" about what is required to address the economy's woes and Obama needed to fix that.
"The president includes a duty to propose remedies equal to the scope of the problem and allow chips fall where they may, " he said. "People are really hungry for a way from this morass. "
The Democratic clamour for a bold plan could increase if the crucial monthly jobs report due out on Friday adds to concerns about the healthiness of the sluggish US economy.
Economists are bracing for a lacklustre August statement. Many said hiring probably took a hit as businesses and consumers were spooked by political wrangling within the debt ceiling, the US credit-rating downgrade and the European debt crisis.
Analysts inside a Reuters survey projected a rise of 75, 000 in payrolls in August using the unemployment rate remaining steady 9. 1%. But some economists did not eliminate the prospect of an outright decline in employment in August.
VENTING AGGRAVATION
A key dilemma for the White House is figuring out the right balance for that package, which is likely to include new spending on public-works projects for example road and school repair, tax breaks to encourage business hiring and possibly also initiatives to assist struggling homeowners.
Dissatisfaction with Obama's leadership on the economy is rising over the political spectrum, pushing his approval ratings to around 43%, near the levels of his presidency.
Democrats are increasingly venting frustration with what they view being an overly modest agenda on the economy. Many felt Obama was too deferential toward Republicans throughout the drawn-out negotiations over the debt ceiling.
But gridlock is probably the probably scenario for near-term proposals to stimulate the economy.
Republicans favour an approach that's diametrically opposed to the one favoured by many Democrats. Republicans reject fiscal steps like infrastructure spending as wasteful and ineffective and have called for shrinking how big government.
In the face of such a sharp divide, Obama's approach to date has been to push ideas like an extension of tax cuts for wage earners and unemployment benefits which were enacted with bipartisan support last December.
But former officials and other Democrats say Obama must now sketch out something much more ambitious.
"I think they should be proposing something substantially bigger, " stated Christina Romer, who served as Obama's chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers during his first 2 yrs in office.
She suggested tying a big near-term fiscal stimulus plan along with proposals for aggressive long-run deficit reduction.
"I do understand that it will be difficult to get something big and bold like that through Congress. However it seems to me it's the right economics, and probably the right national politics, " Romer said.
Public works spending proposals formed a big part from the $800 billion stimulus package Obama pushed through Congress in 2009, an initiative that Republicans contend put into the deficit without meeting promises that it would bring down unemployment.
Tony a2z Fratto, a former aide to President George W. Bush, said Republicans could support a "bold" package but that could depend on what it included.
He said the "classic Keynesian" ideas like infrastructure spending and even short-term payroll tax cuts might not yield the kind of economic boost Democrats hope for.
Fratto said broad tax reform will be one ambitious idea that could encourage investment and bolster growth.
In remarks on Monday announcing labour expert Alan Krueger as his pick being the new head of the Council of Economic Advisers, Obama signalled that infrastructure spending was the main mix of steps he would offer.
He said he wanted to "put more income in the pockets of working families and middle-class families, to make it easier for smaller businesses to hire people, to put construction crews to work rebuilding our country's roads and railways and airports. ".