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On Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama delivered a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, during which he proposed a series of policies, as part of a new jobs bill, aimed at lowering the abnormally high national unemployment rate.

According to White House officials, the president has been considering plans to increase spending on highway projects, offer rebates to homeowners who weatherize their houses and issue tax breaks to small businesses that increase hiring, Reuters reports.

Obama specifically asked members of Congress to consider offering a one-year elimination of capital gains tax and an extension of tax write-offs, both of which may allow small businesses to hire more employees.

According to the Washington Post, the president hopes the legislation will extend unemployment insurance and emergency aid to poverty-stricken cities and to senior citizens.

"Even though we have reduced the deluge of job losses to a relative trickle, we are not yet creating jobs at a pace to help all those families who've been swept up in the flood," Obama said during his speech.

He added that the seven million Americans who lost jobs during the recession represent "the depths of the hole from which we must ascend" and "a continuing human tragedy."

Emphasizing that the president's job-creation efforts are not limited to what was said in the speech, administration officials told the Post Obama will meet with top bankers Monday to encourage them to increase small-business lending.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate dropped from 10.2 percent to 10 percent during November, after raising from 5 percent in April 2008.

Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives have promised to pass a jobs package this month, while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the upper chamber will tackle the bill in January.