Business & Finance Club - Today's Person : The government is handing out $2 billion for renewable energy projects that will create thousands of jobs and clean power for homes, President Obama announced amid mixed economic recovery news.

The clean energy projects, including the construction of one of the world’s largest solar plants, are part of broader economic recovery efforts, the president said during his weekly radio address.

“We’re fighting to speed up this recovery and keep the economy growing by all means possible,” he said. “It’s going to take months, even years to dig our way out.”

The $2 billion investment in clean energy will create 1,600 construction jobs, using mostly U.S.-made products at an Arizona plant, he said. The plant will provide energy to power 70,000 homes.

Two more solar power plants in Colorado and Indiana will create more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.

The initiative is being funded with Recovery Act dollars.

Obama’s announcement came a day after the U.S. Labor Department reported that employers slashed payrolls last month for the first time in six months. Meanwhile, private-sector hiring rose by 83,000 workers. The unemployment rate dropped to 9.5 percent.

Obama also called on Republicans to stop “playing the same old Washington games” in holding up legislation that extends unemployment insurance and helps small businesses get loans. Republicans fired back in their weekly address.

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said the country’s $13 trillion debt is a national security issue that will leave the United States vulnerable and force future generations to “pay higher taxes to foot the bill for Democrats’ out-of-control spending.”

“We have faced down many enemies at home and abroad. But one of the most dangerous threats confronting America today doesn’t come from without, but from within. And I’m talking about our national debt,” he said.