WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is facing the stiffest political headwinds he has experienced since taking office 18 months ago as Americans sour on his handling of the U.S. economy.

Two opinion polls published on Tuesday painted a grim picture as the U.S. economy emerges from the financial crisis and its worst downturn since the 1930s.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged the U.S. Congress on Friday to pass a $5 billion expansion of tax credits for clean energy manufacturing that he said would generate tens of thousands of new jobs.

With anxiety over high unemployment threatening Obama's Democrats in November congressional elections, he used a campaign swing for key political candidates to defend his economic agenda and promote job-boosting measures.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – President Barack Obama defended his handling of the U.S. economy and blasted Republicans on Thursday for "peddling snake oil" as he went on a two-day campaign swing for fellow Democrats going into November's congressional elections.

Obama has come under fire for bank and auto bailouts and a $787 billion stimulus package whose effectiveness is a subject of debate. He is under election-year pressure to reduce a 9.5 percent unemployment rate but said he was confident Americans would "dig ourselves out of this hole".

LAS VEGAS – Mixing policy and politics, President Barack Obama called on Congress Friday to expand a clean energy tax credit that could pay off in Nevada, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is struggling in his re-election campaign.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – President Barack Obama told voters Thursday they can choose between the party that caused the economic meltdown and the one that's fixing it, seizing on a theme for the November midterms as he campaigned in Missouri and Nevada.

WASHINGTON – More than 1.3 million laid-off workers won't get their unemployment benefits reinstated before Congress goes on a weeklong break for Independence Day.

And hundreds of thousands more will lose their benefits in the coming weeks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Congress on Wednesday approved a bill extending the closing deadline for homebuyers trying to take advantage of a popular tax credit.

Homebuyers with contracts signed by April 30 who failed to go to closing by the June 30 deadline will now have until September 30 to complete their purchases. The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved the bill and it now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

WASHINGTON – For the third time in as many weeks, Senate Republicans on Wednesday successfully filibustered a bill to continue providing unemployment checks to millions of people.

But this time, since the slimmed-down measure attracted two Republican votes, its passage seems assured next month once a replacement is in place for Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., who died on Monday.

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats are working on a new way to jump-start their stalled election-year jobs agenda while saving unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of laid-off workers.

The plan is to create one bill that combines the unemployment benefits with an extension of a popular tax credit for people who buy new homes.

WASHINGTON – The demise of Democrats' jobs-agenda legislation means that unemployment benefits will phase out for more than 200,000 people a week. Governors who had counted on fresh federal aid will now have to consider more budget cuts, tax increases and layoffs of state workers.