President Obama is planning to unveil a new series of steps to create jobs and get the economy going.

The president is thinking about proposing tax cuts for companies that hire workers, new spending for roads and construction, and other measures that would target the long-term unemployed, according to administration officials and other people familiar with the matter. Some ideas, such as providing mortgage relief for struggling homeowners, could come through executive action.

Obama also plans to announce a major push for new deficit reduction, urging the special congressional committee formed in the debt-ceiling deal this month to identify even more savings than the $1.5 trillion it has been tasked with finding.

The only stumbling block will be the Republicans, who, because it is President Obama’s idea, will be against it no matter what. Count on it.

There is a way around that, or at least put the GOP on the spot: propose spending and stimulus in places that certain candidates have specifically called for.

[A]ll kinds of right-wing lawmakers who swear public investments are fundamentally evil, including plenty of this year’s radical freshman class, have spent a fair amount of time pleading for more public investment in their states and districts, insisting the spending would be good for the economy.

So how could they possibly be against that? Don’t worry; they’ll find a way.