WASHINGTON -- In a rare move toward bipartisanship, Senate Democrats worked with Republicans as they prepared Tuesday to unveil an $85 billion jobs bill that would include payroll tax breaks for employers who create new jobs, aid to small businesses and other GOP-backed ideas to attack unemployment.

After more than a year of relentlessly partisan conflict, during which Republicans complained of being excluded from drafting the health care bill and Democrats denounced them as the "Party of No," senior members of both parties were working to blend their ideas on an issue that voters seem to care far more about -- jobs and job security.

Outlines of the bill emerged as President Barack Obama spent more than two hours meeting with congressional leaders in an effort to coax green shoots of bipartisanship, even as the capital braced for another paralyzing winter storm.

The president said both parties must be prepared to compromise, regaining a sense of purpose that transcends petty politics as they tackle unemployment and other major issues.

"Bipartisanship depends on a willingness among both Democrats and Republicans to put aside matters of party for the good of the country," Mr. Obama said. "I won't hesitate to embrace a good idea from my friends in the minority party, but I also won't hesitate to condemn what I consider to be obstinacy that's rooted not in substantive disagreements, but in political expedience."

How long even symbolic gestures of bipartisanship would last was unclear. Both parties are still approaching each other warily. That was illustrated when House Republican leaders on Monday sent a blistering letter to the White House that threatened to torpedo Mr. Obama's proposed health care summit Feb. 25. On Tuesday, Mr. Obama fired back at Republicans blocking his nominees to federal positions, saying he would use a procedural tactic to bypass the legislators.

Still, even an approach to seeking common ground was notable, especially in the Senate, where Republicans had appeared to be reveling in their new-found power to kill Democratic initiatives in the wake of adding a member after their recent special election win in Massachusetts.

Democrats embraced some GOP-backed ideas, including new help for small businesses, which in the past have led the way toward recovering lost jobs. According to a draft outline of the bill circulated by Senate Democrats, the cornerstone of the bill would be a proposal to give businesses that hire unemployed workers this year an exemption from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax. If they keep those new employees more than a year, employers would get an additional $1,000 tax credit.

Other provisions of the bill are, for the most part, expansions or extensions of existing policies. The tax break for new equipment purchases by small businesses would be increased.

Few Republicans had seen the proposals Tuesday and bridled when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he hoped that the Senate would pass it by the end of the week. That was unlikely, in any event, because of the approaching snowstorm.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not endorse the emerging bill, but neither did he shoot it down. "The sooner we could get the parameters of the final package, the better," Mr. McConnell told Mr. Reid.

There have been some signs of greater room for agreement on a jobs bill of late, if only because unemployment has emerged as a top concern for voters that politicians of both parties believe they ignore at their peril.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has been working with Republicans privately on jobs proposals involving tax policy. GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has teamed with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to draft the proposed payroll tax break.

Outside Capitol Hill, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has bitterly opposed the health care bill and other big-ticket items on the Democratic agenda, has signaled willingness to work with Mr. Obama on some points of economic policy.

Work on the Senate bill was well under way long before Mr. Reid and other leaders went Tuesday to the White House. The meeting had its testy moments, according to a GOP source briefed about it.

Both the top Republicans in the meeting -- Mr. McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio -- called on the president to shelve the two current health care reform plans that have already separately passed the House and Senate, and instead start fresh, giving GOP lawmakers a seat at the table for those discussions.

Not long after emerging from the meeting, Mr. Obama unexpectedly took over his press secretary's daily briefing, where he declared that he can set aside some Democratic "preferences" on some issues, but warned that Republicans would have to make sacrifices, too.

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.