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 Just 12 days before taking the oath of office, President-elect Barack
Obama seemed extremely presidential when he called on Congress to act quickly on an economic stimulus plan,
saying a big package of spending and tax cuts will be costly but
necessary to restart U.S. growth.
"For every day we wait, or
point fingers, or drag our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs.
More families will lose their savings. More dreams will be deferred and
denied," Obama said.
Obama's speech Thursday, dubbed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., brought his economic plan directly to the public. It comes after some members of Congress expressed concern about the plan because of its impact on the growing budget deficit -- which is forecast to hit $1.2 trillion this year. Obama has urged congressional leaders to have legislation ready for his signature soon after he takes office Jan. 20. Estimates for Obama's rescue plan vary from $775 billion to $1.2 trillion. It will include $300 billion in middle-class tax cuts and tax relief for businesses, massive spending on infrastructure and aid for states that are deep in the red. In this speech, Obama acknowledged that his proposals will add to the budget deficit in the short term. However, he says that not pumping enough money into the economy would lead to a greater loss of jobs and personal income. "I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama said. He also added that leaders from both parties need to put the nation's "urgent needs" ahead their own "narrow interests." Obama says the goal of his stimulus plan isn't a "slew of new government programs," but rather a "foundation for long-term economic growth." "Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy -- where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs, which leads to even less spending, where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit," Obama said. "If we hope to end this crisis, we must end the culture of 'anything goes' that helped create it, and this change must begin in Washington," he said. He laid out goals of doubling the production of alternative energy over three years, updating most federal buildings to improve energy efficiency, making medical records electronic, expanding broadband networks and bringing schools and universities into the 21st century. Obama also pledged to overhaul the financial regulatory system, which allowed subprime mortgage lending to escalate to disastrous levels. "Wall Street has not worked, our regulatory system has not worked the way it's supposed to. We're going to have to look at this alphabet soup of agencies and figure out how do we get them to work together more effectively," he said. - Donna Block Categories Deal Video
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