Obama Wants $50 Billion for Roads, Railways, Airports

In a Labor Day speech in Milwaukee, President Barack Obama will call for $50 billion in government spending to spark a six-year public works plan focused on improving roads, rail transportation and airport runways.

White House officials said the money would be used to rebuild 15,000 miles of roads, construct and maintain 4,000 miles of railway and rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles of airport runways.

The White House says the plan would create jobs in the short term, and that it will work with Congress to find ways to pay the costs without increasing the deficit. One possibility would be to cut existing subsidies for oil and gas exploration and production, The New York Times reported.

Obama is expected to issue his call in Milwaukee on Monday afternoon while attending a union festival. The spending is part of a larger economic recovery package that the president will unveil during a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday.