The emerging strategy seeks to take advantage of the partisan stalemate in Congress over Obama's nominees and major policy initiatives, and to turn the page on a year when the White House failed to secure passage of complicated health-care and energy legislation.

The idea is to make Republicans either vote for a series of more modest bills identified as popular with the public or explain to constituents this fall why they opposed them.

The decision by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to offer a pared-down jobs-creation bill and dare the GOP to oppose it is the most visible sign of the plan so far. White House officials and congressional staff members say it will be followed in coming weeks by a House vote to lift the antitrust exemption for insurance companies, measures to assist small businesses and extend unemployment benefits, and a proposal to levy fees on Wall Street banks that received bailout money.

One senior White House official called the strategy an attempt "to force progress," at a time when polls show that the public wants bipartisan cooperation.

"If they support the measures, great," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy. "But if not, the votes will show their hypocrisy and obstruction, which will demonstrate something in itself."

But the strategy carries risks for Obama and congressional Democrats, who saw their filibuster-proof majority disappear last month with the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott P. Brown to the Senate.

Some of the measures the White House plans to push this year are not popular with all congressional Democrats, including the proposal to impose fees on large banks that accepted federal bailout money. And Democrats have also used some of the same arcane delaying tactics that they now criticize Republicans for employing, including Obama himself when he served in the Senate.

"If your public position is bipartisanship and your legislative stance is division, I don't think that works politically," said Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).