DETROIT -- Conceding unemployment will get worse before it shrinks, President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled a $12 billion plan to help community colleges prepare millions of people for a new generation of jobs. Challenging critics, he said he welcomed the task of turning around the economy.

"I love the folks who helped get us in this mess and then suddenly say, 'Well, this is Obama's economy,"' the president told an outdoor crowd at Macomb Community College, veering off his scripted words. "That's fine. Give it to me. My job is to solve problems, not to stand on the sidelines and harp and gripe."

Text:Obama's Education Speech In Warren, Mich.

Obama did not identify his target for those comments, but he has been under increasing fire from Republicans over the pace of the economic recovery and the soaring deficit. He brought his message to a state reeling from the loss of auto jobs. Michigan's unemployment rate is 14.1 percent, the nation's worst.

Mich. Residents Grade President

"The hard truth is that some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won't be coming back," Obama said. "They are the casualties of a changing economy."

To that end, he proposed an "American Graduation Initiative" to bolster the two-year community college field that serves millions of students as a launching point for careers or a step toward expanded higher education. The idea is to train people for jobs, such as those expected in the clean energy industry, when the economy turns around and begins to create jobs again instead of shedding them.

Under the plan, competitive grants would be offered to schools to try new programs or expand training and counseling.

High dropout rates would be addressed by designing programs to track students and help them earn an associate's degree or finish their education at a four-year institution. Money would also be spent to renovate and rebuild facilities, and online courses would be developed to help colleges offer more classes.

The White House said the cost would be $12 billion over 10 years; Obama said it would be paid for by ending wasteful subsidies to banks and private lenders of student loans.

"Time and again, when we have placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result," Obama said.

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a former education secretary, said Obama's plan is a "typical proposal" that sounds better than it is. "When our biggest problem as a country is too much debt, he's taking the entitlement spending he claims to be saving from the student loan program and adding it to the debt," Alexander said.

Obama's speech came a day after the White House issued an upbeat report predicting that health care and environment-focused jobs would help drive a jobs recovery but that education and training would have to keep up with a demand for higher-skilled workers. In the report, Obama's economic advisers said U.S. post-high school education and training need to be more effective at encouraging participants to complete their training and to respond to the labor market.

Earlier on Tuesday at the White House, Obama said he expected that the nation's unemployment rate would continue to "tick up for several months."

It is now at 9.5 percent, the highest in 26 years. Obama said renewed hiring tends to lag behind other signs of economic recovery.

In Michigan, Obama called the $12 billion in spending over the next decade "the most significant down payment" yet toward achieving his goal of having the highest college graduation rate of any nation.

Speaking in rolled-up sleeves, Obama said jobs requiring at least an associate's degree are expected to grow twice as fast as those where college education is not required.

"We will not fill those jobs, or keep those jobs on our shores, without the training offered by community colleges," Obama said. Community colleges have been feeling pinched lately. Enrollments have been increasing for several reasons, including rising college costs at public and private institutions and the needs of people who have lost jobs and are eager to learn new skills.

About 6 million students attend community college, administration officials said. Obama is setting a goal of 5 million additional college graduates.

Laid off former GM contract engineer Mike Hitchins went back to school to get a third degree in civil engineering.

However, he feels the No Worker Left Behind program has left him behind.

Hitchins sends out 15 resumes a day since being laid off.

He offered a suggestion to Obama on Michigan and the future of its workers.

"I think the best thing for them to do is to offer the training money to employers and maybe take some of the unemployment money and start paying people, or give people jobs so they can actually start doing something," Hitchins said.

Meanwhile, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Republican senators on Tuesday at their private weekly luncheon at the Capitol that the government's $1 trillion deficit was the single biggest hurdle to economic recovery. In his speech, Obama acknowledged the problem of debt but said again that the only way to start reducing deficits is to reform the health care system, his dominant legislative priority.

Obama's stop in Michigan was his first visit to the state since he defeated Republican Sen. John McCain there in the presidential election.

Obama's trip wasn't all about policy, however. Before returning to the White House, he was dropping by Busch Stadium in St. Louis to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Major League Baseball's annual All-Star game. It will be his first pitch as president.

Community Rallies To Catch Glimpse Of President

Obama's speech in Warren was by invitation only, yet hundreds lined the streets in an effort to see the presidential motorcade.

Jennifer Smith and her two children were taking a walk on Martin Road in Warren when they came face-to-face with the president's car.

"That's so neat. I'm so excited that my kids are here," Smith said.

Smith said the realization that she was only 15 feet away from the president brought her to tears briefly.

"Hopefully good stuff will come out and our economy will turn around," she said.

On Bunert Street, 9-year-old James Brown waved to the president as he passed.

"I saw the president," Brown said excitedly.

But it wasn't just residents who smiled at the idea of being in the presence of the president.

Macomb County Deputy Gary Weigand is a 10-year veteran who was assigned to cover his first presidential detail Tuesday.

"I feel very honored," Weigand said. "It's exciting to have the president of the United States come to our community and then on top of that to be able to be out here, take part of it, try and keep everyone safe ..."

Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital and Detroit Receiving Hospital, two local level one trauma centers, were on stand by Tuesday.

DRH Chief of Emergency Medicine Dr. Padriac Sweeny said it's an honor.

"It's a significant responsibility, and an honor, to be the resource hospital to the president of the United States," Sweeny said.