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President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress who are demanding deep budget cuts, people familiar with the speech said.

In arguing that U.S. competitiveness is at stake, Mr. Obama plans to use his nationally televised speech to try to frame the spending debate with Republicans that is expected to dominate Congress in the coming months. "We seek to do everything we can to spur hiring and ensure our nation can compete with anybody on the planet," Mr. Obama said Friday after touring a General Electric Co. plant in Schenectady, N.Y. He cited clean-energy manufacturing, infrastructure and education as keys to competitiveness.

Previewing the expected theme of his speech, Mr. Obama on Friday appointed GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt to lead a new President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Commenting on the new advisory panel, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said that unless its "first recommendations are to reverse the damage the policies of the last two years have done to the business climate, job creation and the exploding national debt, I fear it will do more to create good public relations for the White House than good jobs for struggling Americans."

Republicans are casting the White House's pivot toward competitiveness as an excuse for bigger government and more spending. They say a surge in federal spending and a $1.3 trillion budget deficit are impeding job creation, and dramatic spending cuts are needed immediately.

In the House, Republicans are pushing to cut $100 billion from the annual budget as soon as this year. A coalition of House Republicans proposed Thursday cutting $2.5 trillion in spending over a decade, pushing nondefense discretionary spending down to 2006 levels for 10 years.

A White House official said Mr. Obama's conception of competitiveness goes beyond stripping away onerous rules and envisions  stepping in where the market fails. The official said areas such as renewable energy and scientific research are underfunded by the private sector, because returns are uncertain. These areas are vital to the nation's long-term growth, the official said, and   the state must step in when businesses don't.

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I thought Obama had already authorized money to be spent on creating new infrastructure in the nation.  I thought he had all these shovel-ready jobs available.  What happened to all that money?

I'm not against creating new infrastructure in this country.  I mentioned some that would be needed in another post on renewable energy sources.  And I'm all for creating jobs and new research.

However...new spending isnt the answer.  If Obama can figure a way to shift money from one area (like the National Endowment of the Arts) and put it toward these things, then go for it.

But I'm not for a new round of spending.  We're deep enough in debt already.

Shift money from supporting PBS.  Shift it from these swimming pools, and pig farms and bridges to nowhere.  Cut federal spending on foreign aid back to what France and some other European countries are.  We dont have to be number one in giving money away.  Stop blowing money on entertainment for foreign dignitaries.

There are probably some redundant agencies that we could save money on too.

Fire all these czars we have.  (36 of em I think).
Reduce Govt spending back to...say...2004 levels.  
Pass a balanced budget amendment.

Find that $25 billion that is missing.  The government knows that $25 billion was spent by someone, somewhere, on something, but auditors do not know who spent it, where it was spent, or on what it was spent.

Put a stop to these unused flight tickets.  An audit revealed that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million.

Eliminate Medicare overspending.  Medicare pays as much as eight times what other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies.

Prosecute those who abuse and waste Medicaid funds.  Significant waste, fraud, and abuse pervade Medicaid, which provides health services to 44 million low-income Americans. While states run their own Medicaid programs, the federal government reimburses an average of 57 percent of each state's costs.

Require better verification of incomes and clearly define the standards by which a child qualifies for the earned income tax credit.  The (EITC) provides $31 billion in refundable tax credits to 19 million low-income families. The IRS estimates that $8.5 billion to $9.9 billion of this amount-nearly one-third-is wasted in overpayments.

Eliminate redundancy.  Our government's layering of new programs on top of old ones inherently creates duplication. Having several agencies perform similar duties is wasteful and confuses