WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama was due to announce on Monday a six-year plan to revamp the United States' road, railways and runways with a $50 billion up-front investment to jump-start job creation, the White House said.

The plan is one of several economic initiatives that Obama is due to unveil this week aimed at generating some desperately needed U.S. job growth and limiting predicted Democratic losses in November 2 congressional elections.
Struggling to persuade Americans that his economic policies are working, Obama will use appearances in Milwaukee and Cleveland this week to set the tone for the fall campaign.
The argument he will make on the trips and a rare White House news conference is this: Democratic policies have stopped the bleeding and produced some economic growth. Yes, more needs to be done, but Republicans would bring back ideas, he will argue, that propelled the country into the deepest recession in 70 years.
Obama is to make his case with a speech in Milwaukee to a labor rally on Monday, the Labor Day holiday that marks the informal start of the election campaign season.
The White House did not say how it proposed to pay for the infrastructure plan, but an official said one option under consideration was to close tax breaks for oil and gas companies.
The official said Obama was committed to working with Congress to fully pay for the plan.
Under the six-year plan, Obama is proposing to: rebuild 150,000 miles of roads; construct and maintain 4,000 miles of rail; rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles of runway and modernize the air traffic control system; and set up an infrastructure bank to leverage private, state and local capital to invest in projects.
The White House said the bank would end the existing system of spending on infrastructure projects that was based more on ""geography and politics than demonstrated value.""
Administration officials said he will propose making permanent the business tax credits for research, which the White House projects will cost $100 billion over 10 years and would be paid for by ending some corporate tax breaks.
Other items that could also be talked about by Obama are a payroll tax holiday, extending tax cuts for the middle class and increasing money for clean energy.
Democrats are facing an angry electorate that could end their one-party rule in Washington. Many experts believe Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives on November 2 and perhaps even the Senate, which would make it harder for Obama to advance his domestic agenda on issues like climate legislation.
Photo: President Barack Obama walks from the Oval Office through the Colonnade to deliver remarks about the economy in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, September 3, 2010. (Photo: Reuters)