Obama's economy speech faces GOP squeeze

President Obama plans to deliver what the White House bills as a "major address" on the economy after Labor Day, but the calendar is getting crowded.

Obama is scheduled to deliver a Labor Day speech to a union group in Detroit, just as he did in Milwaukee last year and Cincinnati the year before. He'll have to hint at his jobs proposals at that time, though the White House says the big speech will come later.

The next day, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney plans to announce his own jobs plan in Nevada. The day after that, most of the Republican field will debate at the Reagan Library in California.

That complicates the White House decision-making process. If Obama speaks before the Republicans dominate the news, his plan would be attacked, changing the story line. If he speaks during those two days, his plan would get less attention than it otherwise would. And if he waits too long, Republicans will say: What are you waiting for?

The Labor Day speech could solve that problem. Last year in Milwaukee, Obama unveiled a six-year, $50 billion transportation improvement program, but it went nowhere in Congress.

"Over the next six years, we are going to rebuild 150,000 miles of our roads, enough to circle the world six times," Obama said at the time. "We're going to lay and maintain 4,000 miles of our railways, enough to stretch coast-to-coast. We're going to restore 150 miles of runways and advance a next-generation air-traffic control system to reduce travel time and delays for American travelers, something I think folks across the political spectrum could agree on."