Administration officials said that the proposal, like past tax overhauls, would raise additional revenue on a one-time basis that could offset new spending. That money, the officials said, could be used to finance the investment in jobs.

The revenue would result from the transition to a revised code — for example, as companies paid a one-time fee on profits they earned overseas but did not bring home because they did not make them subject to American tax rates.

For two years, Republicans have rejected most of Mr. Obama’s initiatives to create jobs, in part because, to avoid increasing the budget deficit, he has paired those ideas with proposals to repeal or reduce tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations, especially oil companies.

By presenting the tax-rate cut as a stand-alone proposal, the White House hoped to make it more appealing to Republicans — or, failing that, to depict them as obstructionists. Both Republicans and the administration have said that an overhaul of the corporate code should be “revenue neutral,” meaning it does not add to or subtract from the annual budget deficit.

The White House and Republicans also clashed over Mr. Obama’s contention that he was making a concession by calling for an overhaul of the corporate tax code separate from one for individual taxes. In truth, analysts said, both the White House and Republicans have been increasingly open to separating the two, although neither likes to advertise it.

In February 2012, Timothy F. Geithner, then the Treasury secretary, said the administration’s plan was devised so that the corporate tax code could be overhauled separately.