Obama to Propose $300 Billion Jobs Package: Report

President Barack Obama, facing waning confidence among Americans in his economic stewardship, plans to lay out a $300 billion job-creation package on Thursday, CNN reported, citing Democratic sources.

CNBC U.S. President Barack Obama.

The proposed new spending, to be announced by Obama in a nationally televised speech to Congress, would be offset by budget cuts, the report said, signaling that the Democratic president hopes to mollify the concerns of Republican fiscal hawks resistant to his jobs ideas.

There was no immediate comment from the White House.

Obama's aides have refused to go public with the estimated cost of Obama's package or provide many specifics in advance, except to say that the proposals will have a " quick and positive" impact on boosting jobs at a time of stubbornly high U.S. unemployment.

Confidence in Obama's management of the economy has been hit by months of bad economic news and several polls on Tuesday showed fresh declines in his job approval ratings.

Obama hopes to start reversing this trend in an address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, in which he will try to convince voters that he has a better economic recovery plan than his Republican opponents.

" We need to do things that will have a direct impact in the short-term to grow the economy and create jobs and the president will put forward proposals that will do just that," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Obama fought Republicans all summer to lift the U.S. debt ceiling in a bitter debate that saw rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. AAA credit rating, and he must now get lawmakers to back additional spending that many oppose.

However, the president is seeking congressional support at a time when his own prospects of re-election have worsened.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed Obama's job approval rating at a low of 44 percent, while an ABC News/ Washington Post poll found that six in 10 Americans now rate the president's job on the economy and jobs negatively.

A third survey by Politico and George Washington University found that 72 percent of voters believe the country is either strongly or somewhat headed in the wrong direction, a jump of 12 percent since last May.