President Obama is reportedly preparing to unveil a new jobs package early next month. Citing a senior administration official, the Associated Press reports Obama will propose “tax cuts, jobs-boosting infrastructure ideas and steps that would specifically help the long-term unemployed.” Obama has faced criticism for his focus on reducing the U.S. deficit amidst high unemployment. On Tuesday, Obama unveiled a new initiative for rural areas during a trip through Iowa.

President Obama: “Today, I am announcing that we’re ramping up our efforts to get capital to small businesses in rural areas. We’re doubling the commitment we’ve already made through key small business lending programs. We’re going to make it easier for people in rural areas looking for work to find out about companies that are hiring. We’re going to do more to speed the development of next-generation biofuels, and we’re going to promote renewable energy and conservation.”

Obama was in Iowa as part of a three-day bus tour through the Midwest. On the Republican side, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, took aim at Obama during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

Mitt Romney: “Two days of a bus tour are not going to make up for two-and-a-half years of failure to get the American people back to work. I know that he looks at this as kind of a celebratory bus tour. But there’s no question in anyone’s mind but he would not be doing that bus tour if his first two-and-a-half years had been successful. This, for him, is an effort to try and convince the American people he ought to be reelected. And his record speaks a heck of a lot louder than these bus tires do.”