The banks “are healing,” says Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. And the soaring profits reported by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan suggests that at least some of the big banks are planning a return to the days of million-dollar bonuses.

Main Street isn’t faring as well. Unemployment is headed to 10 percent. One in six workers is unemployed or underemployed. Wages are down. Families are still losing their homes. Credit-card defaults are rising. Malls are hurting big time. The auto industry is still reeling. And manufacturing jobs are collapsing, many moving abroad not to return.

As the president pointed out in his speech to the NAACP, minorities take the biggest hit. Low-wage urban workers have been particularly affected by the collapse of construction. Unemployment is higher among blacks and Latinos, reaching 50 percent of young black men in cities.

This shouldn’t be surprising. Led by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, the government devoted literally trillions to backstopping the banks.

Main Street hasn’t received as much help. The president’s recovery plan was a down payment, but it was weakened by conservatives in the Senate. They added tax cuts (which are likely to be saved or used to pay down debt) and slashed infrastructure investments. A decent portion of the recovery plan helped those most in distress — with extended unemployment benefits, higher food stamps, and refundable tax credits. States and localities got billions — but not enough to bridge the gap between revenues and expenses.

Treasury’s mortgage plan — designed to encourage brokers to renegotiate mortgages — is a bust. Thousands have been helped while millions are losing their homes. We need a much bigger program with greater authority to require mortgages be renegotiated so people can stay in their homes. And Congress should give bankruptcy courts the power to rewrite mortgages. Every homeowner has a stake in stemming the tide of foreclosures. And that measure will give banks the incentive to re-negotiate rather than delay until foreclosure.

We need to start watering the roots. A targeted jobs program designed to put people to work is vital. We need to enlist workers in everything from planting trees to training to weatherizing schools. We need paid citizen corps that can do everything from clean up public parks to work in seniors’ centers.

Obama’s plan, before it was weakened, was designed to create 3.5 million jobs. But the United States has already lost 6.5 million jobs, and the number is rising at nearly 500,000 a month.

The Obama plan hasn’t failed — it just wasn’t big enough. We need a targeted jobs plan right now.