WASHINGTON - - Warning that the nation had developed a "deficit of trust" in government, President Barack Obama promised Wednesday night to put the public's top concerns - jobs and the economy - at the center of his second year in office while continuing to press for a health care overhaul and the rest of his stalled agenda.

In his first State of the Union address, Obama acknowledged that, for many Americans, the change he promised as a presidential candidate has seemed slow in coming.

"Some are frustrated, some are angry," Obama told a joint session of Congress. "They don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn't, or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems."

But he also offered a defense of his ambitions during his first year in office and said he would continue to press for a health care bill, cap and trade legislation, tougher bank regulations and a new jobs bill. Those proposals have started their journey through Congress, but their prospects are far from clear.

While many of those goals were familiar from Obama's first speech to Congress nearly a year ago, the context was radically changed.

Last year he talked about moving forward with progressive policies on a scale akin to that of Franklin D. Roosevelt. On Wednesday, he spoke as a politician battered for a year by opponents and with his signature health care effort in jeopardy after the stunning loss of the Democratic Senate seat in Massachusetts. Party leaders are scrambling to stop the stampede of Democratic House members considering a new line of work.

In a moment that spoke volumes about the president's state of mind after a bruising year, he declared at the close of his speech: "We don't quit. I don't quit."

While the ideas he outlined were big, some of the solutions were fine-pointed. He called, for example, on lawmakers to establish a single Web site for disclosing all special-funding requests before they come to a vote. That information is already posted on the Web, but Obama wants it all in one place.

To boost the economy, Obama proposed taking $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid from their bailouts and using it to help community banks give credit to small business.

He announced funding to begin a new nationwide high-speed rail system. He called for an end to tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and said the money raied should reward those who do otherwise. His budget, to be unveiled on Monday, will include new investments in technology to diversify energy sources and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Obama promoted his plan to help middle-class families by doubling the child-care tax credit. Vowing that the federal government would tighten its belt, he pledged to freeze discretionary spending on nonsecurity items amounting to about an eighth of the federal budget.

While there was no moment akin to the outburst in September, when a Republican yelled "You lie" as Obama addressed Congress, there were still signs of a coolness between the two parties. Most Republicans remained stone-faced even when Obama recited a list of tax cuts he enacted - usually a GOP crowd-pleaser.House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio raised his hand when Obama told the joint session that he would welcome a health care proposal from anyone who had a plan to control costs and expand coverage.

The most unusual display might have come from a justice of the Supreme Court, whose members customarily sit impassively during the State of the Union.

As Obama asserted that the court's recent decision on campaign finance law could open the gates to more corporate influence, Justice Samuel A. Alito, a member of the 5-4 majority in the case, mouthed the words "That's not true" from his seat in the second row.

Even experts with an affinity for Obama's economic views suggested that his agenda had been diminished by the battles of the past year.

"I wouldn't say the economic challenges have changed much," said Dean Baker, an economist at the progressive Center for Economic and Policy Research. "What has changed is the ambitions. The big ambitions are gone."

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, said there was only so much Obama could do at this point to create jobs, in part because so much has already been done.

"The optics are correct on the middle- class proposals, but I think when you add it all up, it doesn't mean a whole lot," said Zandi, who also advised John McCain's presidential campaign in 2008. One proposal by Obama that might make a difference, he said, was a plan to provide tax incentives for small employers to create jobs. That "could be a substantial game-changer," he said.

A new edge to the Obama persona emerged when the president admonished Republican leaders to stop voting as a group against major pieces of business. "The responsibility to govern is now yours as well," he said.

Rep. Donna Edwards, a Prince George's County Democrat, called the address "a home run." She said she was "excited by the tone of the speech" and considered it important that Obama said he was not going to give up on health care.

Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Montgomery County said Obama's speech "provided an important boost to keep health care reform on track."

Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Frederick, the state's lone Republican in Congress, said he was hopeful that Obama's call for the two major parties to work together would lead to more bipartisan action.

But he pointed to a passage in which Obama said that the public expects the Democrats, with one of the largest majorities in years, to solve problems.

Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley watched the speech from a front-row seat in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's box, seated between her son, Paul Pelosi, and her brother, former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro III. The governor called it "a great speech."

At several points, Obama seemed like a beleaguered, misunderstood president struggling to explain himself - a surprising tone to strike for a young leader who stood on the podium a year ago with soaring popularity and deep reservoirs of good will.

Obama spent a lot of time in the speech "setting the record straight" by saying he had cut taxes and that the budget deficit that had been built up "before I even walked in the door."

He said he had been forced by events to support a bank bailout.

"If there's one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, it's that we all hated the bank bailout. I hated it. You hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal," the president said to laughter.

Obama was candid about the rocky waters his health care initiative has faced: "It should be fairly obvious that I didn't take on health care because it was good politics."

But he urged Democrats not to give in to those who would abandon the enterprise as a politically risky lost cause.

"Do not walk away from reform," he said. "Not now. Not when we are so close."

Baltimore Sun reporter Paul West contributed to this article.