U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday in San Antonio that he expects that President Barack Obama will propose two or three new government spending programs next week in a jobs-creation speech, but that they will be further steps in the wrong direction for the economy.

“If government spending worked, we'd be in a boom,” said McConnell, R-Ky.. “He (Obama) cannot figure this out. He needs to quit what he's doing.”

The federal government needs to back away from regulations and threats of higher taxes, McConnell told more than 350 people attending a luncheon at the Westin Riverwalk hotel held by the Greater San Antonio, San Antonio Hispanic and North San Antonio chambers of commerce and the Texas Tribune.

Obama “did all the wrong things” in his initial years in office, McConnell said. “We need to see what the private sector can do” about the nation's “economic trough.”

McConnell was a constant presence in the national news leading up to the early-August showdown in Congress over raising the federal debt ceiling. He explained to Texas Tribune CEO and Editor-in-chief Evan Smith in a conversation on the stage why the Republicans turned the debt ceiling vote into a spectacle to seek spending cuts.

“It was because of the size of the debt,” which rose 35 percent during Obama's first two years in office, McConnell said. “How do you make something happen? This was an opportunity to turn the country into a different direction. I knew we weren't going to default” on the debt.

The debt ceiling was raised with an agreement to appoint 12 members of Congress to a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. The “super committee” must recommend steps by Thanksgiving. An up-or-down vote by Congress before Christmas follows.

“We all know what the options are,” McConnell said, citing reforms in Social Security and Medicare eligibility already recommended by last year's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, led by former Sen. Alan Simpson and North Carolina businessman Erskine Bowles.

McConnell said reforms such as means testing and raising the age eligibilities are necessary to assure that the programs will exist for future generations. “Neither program is sustainable with the current eligibility rules,” he said.

When asked about immigration reform, McConnell told Smith that Congress likely will be able to change the system only one step at a time instead of in a comprehensive package. After border security steps are taken, employment verification, foreign worker visas and citizenship can be taken up in separate bills, he said.

“We are not going to round up people,” McConnell said. Too many Americans still see paths to citizenship as a reward for entering the country illegally, he added, and are against it.

McConnell refused to name his favorite Republican candidate for president in the 2012 race, despite repeated prodding by Smith, saying he would support the party nominee, whoever that becomes. After the event, McConnell told the media that he sees Texas Gov. Rick Perry as “a credible candidate” and the party's front-runner.

A demonstration with more than 35 people was held outside the hotel before the McConnell event. Participant Laurel Stranaghan said the sign-carrying demonstrators were members of local labor unions and the national MoveOn advocacy group.

“We want the senator to know we are paying attention. The American dream is threatened right now. The unemployed should be turned into taxpayers,” Stranaghan said.