Obama Promises "Immediate Action" On The Economy

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday outlined his plan to create 2.5 million jobs in coming years to rebuild roads and bridges and modernize schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.

"These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis; these are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long," Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address. The economic recovery plan being developed by his staff aims to create 2.5 million jobs by January 2011, and he wants to get it through Congress quickly and sign it soon after taking office.

He called the plan "big enough to meet the challenges we face" and said that it will jump-start job creation but also "lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy."

Aides said the economic plan outlined Saturday went further that the president-elect has gone before.

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A trio of crises _ housing, credit and financial _ have badly damaged the economy, and financial analysts have projected the country's economic hardships will continue through much of 2009.

Obama acknowledged Saturday that evidence is growing the country is "facing an economic crisis of historic proportions." He noted turmoil on Wall Street, a decrease in new home purchases, growing jobless claims and the menacing problem of deflation.

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He said he was pleased Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits this week, but added, "We must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again."

Figures out this week showed new claims for jobless aid had reached a 16-year high. "If we don't act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year," Obama said.

He cautioned, "There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better." But Obama said Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, "is our chance to begin anew."

Obama said getting congressional approval for his broad economic plan will not be easy.

"I will need and seek support from Republicans and Democrats, and I'll be welcome to ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle," he said. "But what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action."

Across the country, Americans "are lying awake at night wondering if next week's paycheck will cover next month's bills," people are showing up at work to clear out their desks and retirees are watching their life savings disappear, Obama said.

On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to 542,000. That marked the highest level since July 1992 and provided fresh evidence of a rapidly weakening job market that is expected to get even worse next year.

In this country's darkest hours, the American people have risen above their divisions to solve their problems, he said.

"We have acted boldly, bravely, and above all, together," Obama said. "That is the chance our new beginning now offers us, and that is the challenge we must rise to in the days to come. It is time to act. As the next president of the United States, I will."

___

On the Net:

Video link to Obama's address: http://www.change.gov

Comments

[maxdenn]

I trust nobody in the Bush Administration.

[HappyIdiot51]

Just trust yourself.

[momof3inGA]

I was going to post an intelligent comment, but see from the most recent ones that the trolls are out and it'd be a waste of my time.

[HappyIdiot51]

Don't give up. They need to hear what you have to say.

[yorkie]

I ALSO URGE ALL HERE AND O SUPPORTERS EVERYWHERE TO EMAIL,WRITE O AND TEAM AND ALL IN CONGRESS TO create big new rail system with high speed trains across the country this more than just fixing old roads,bridges and building new ones would create many more jobs and lasting ones as well. With more people in urban areas and mobile society we need trains to more efficiently get us where we need to go safely and cleanly,,,this is green and great at the same time ! We are so behind EUROPE and JAPAN etc in our outmoded trans. system...W­E HAVE FOR too long been taken hostage by THE BANKRUPT DETROIT CIGAR smokers and BIG OIL that bought politicians etc and kept trains out since the late 1960's....­I also call on THE ENTIRE BUSH CABINET TO RESIGN NOW and appoint/swear in O 's picks ASAP! ===THAT WAY O can begin with team all in place and begin running JAN 20 if not sooner !!! WE NEED TO CHANGE THE JAN 20TH DATE AND MOVE IT UP TO DEC 20 in future as well as shortening the nominating season ,,move up from NOV to early OCT, and vote on the WKD, SCRAP the electoral collge as well,

[pegbo]

I agree, I would love to see high speed rail here in the US.

[SammyD]

how will you pay for this?

[johjac]

You are right on the money! When compared to European trains - Amtrak is an embarrassment.

[LoyalOpposition]

Congress:

I urge you to call for the quick removal of Treasury Sec. Paulsen, who has now accomplished what had only previously been seen in Mexico, where the ruling party (PRI) would clean out the national treasury before leaving the country's working poor saddled with the bill. Paulsen did not do what was promised when asking for the wall street bailout, helping those who face foreclosure, and using the billions to help boost economic recovery. While Congress talks tough to the Auto industry where many of fellow countrymen toil, they are letting the scoundrels who put together the subprime fiasco scot free. Let's see some justice here!

[karma namdak]

BS! Get off of Paulson's back. He's doing a good job in an impossible situation. The purposes of the "bailout" was not to "bailout" invsolvent institutions or individuals, but rather, to stabilize a financial system that was at great risk of total collapse.

Somebody give this poor guy some credit. If his actions had NOT worked, you would know it, trust me! I wouldn't want to be Henry Paulson for all the money in the world. God bless the guy!

[KAL4Obama]

acudoc said...
IF the money to do this were to come from debt-free Treasury money, issued by the government interest-free for just such a purpose and not "borrowed" out of thin air from the fractional-reserve banking system at interest, then the plan could prove helpful. If it continues to line the pockets of the financial elite while placing the population further in debt, it will only exacerbate the problems we are having. Think about it. You don't take on more debt when you are presently maxed out in debt to the banking cartel and think that is going to help your present situation. You become more indentured to them at every turn.


Amen!!! I agree with you. Obama's plan without monetary reform will only be a short-term solution to a long term problem. The constitution gives Congress the right to "coin" (i.e. create) money. When Congress relinquished that right to the "Federal" Reserve, a privately-owned bank cartel, it put Americans on a downward never ending debt spiral. Until the real Federal government abolishes the Federal Reserve or takes complete! control of it we will always be indebted to the banks. The Federal Reserve Act needs to be repealed or amended. Otherwise, most of our money will be used to either pay interest and taxes.

[karma namdak]

Blah, blah, blah, "abolish the fed, abolish the fed!". I've grown tired of this conspiracy theory. The Federal Reserve is NOT a cabal of evil bankers! Look, here's the reality that none of you guys will acknowledge: it is NOT to the advantage of the wealthy to destroy our economy! We go down, they go down. There's no disconnect there, us much as you might want to believe there is.

Pervasive poverty benefits nobody. True, the wealthiest of us might be much greedier than the average Joe, but they're not stupid. Social instability doesn't benefit the wealthy in the long run. Ok, maybe they don't all get that, but somebody should start remind them of it.

[canucklivinginUSA]

Dude, take that s h i t to the Nation, thanks

[karma namdak]

A major federal stimulus is a great idea, but the money should NOT be in the form of checks sent to consumers.­.. Rather invest, in infrastructure, greening the country, and, perhaps most importantly, EDUCATION. In fact, if President Obama could be so kind as to spend about $250 million of the $300-500 billion on Autodesk software products, I would truly appreciate it. ;-)

[Cherubim]

Think of education as a birth-to-death experience in America
Q: Do we need to rethink education in any particular way?
A: Yes, I believe we do. I think that we tend to think of education as K through 12, maybe college and in some rare cases, graduate school. We should think of education as a birth-to-death experience in America. That means we get the kids as early as we possibly can. [Then, for college], we know if you graduate from college this year that the information you learned, a huge amount will be outdated in 5 or 10 years. So we need an infrastructure for continuing education after high school, college, or graduate school, whichever is the last part of your formal education. So we continue to learn. Now, we have an ad hoc system, where we leave it to individuals or their employers the enormous responsibility of ensuring that 50-year-old workers in America are up-to-date and best trained, best educated they can possibly be. I think we have to develop a national infrastructure for making sure people continue to learn as they age.
Link: John Edwards on Education
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN7RgDIXKug

[JettaBostonian]

JettaBostonian
Perhaps one of them can be assigned to teach you that sentences begin with a capital letter.
Posted 03:54 PM on 11/22/2008

woodrowwest
when you have lost an arm for the defense of this country and can only type with one hand then you can criticize my typing skills
Posted 04:01 PM on 11/22/2008

Yet you are able to use the shift key to put apostrophes in your posts:

woodrowwest
i'm not lying about anything.
posted Nov 22, 2008 at 16:14:10

woodrowwest
and what gov't job do you have.
posted Nov 22, 2008 at 16:05:53

[Knowitall]

Perhaps you two can exchange e-mail addresses so we won't have to look in on this.

[mauibob]

I was listineng to the business news channels yesterday and they are both in agreement that Obama is appointing pro wall street, pro free trade people to his administration. That is really good news.

[mauibob]

The economy created 5.4 million jobs for the three years ended in 2006. 2.5 million over 2 years with a much higher population seems pretty pitiful.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060707.html

[ErnestineBass]

Now subtract the jobs lost since 2006.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Bush will have increased jobs by less than 4,000,000 over 8 years while Clinton increased jobs by 22,000,000 over 8 years. Dems always do better with the economy. That's change I can believe in.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Obviously you are ignorant as you sound. These are the jobs being created by government intervention directly. You slyly also forget to subtract the job loses for the last couple of years which gives Bush a job growth of 8 years of less than 4,000,000 jobs which is pitiful and far below population growth. Try another spin of the tro// wheel of lies.

[Cherubim]

"Families across the country are working harder than ever, but in the last seven years, the typical family's income actually decreased – at the same time the costs of health care, energy, and housing are skyrocketing," said Edwards. "The truth is our economy is slowing under the weight of stagnant wages, a major housing crisis and a spike in energy costs. And now, leading economists are saying there's a substantial risk we could enter a recession.­"

http://www.johnedwards.com/news/headlines/20071222-stimulus-plan/

[karma namdak]

Not when we start approaching 8% unemployment! Those 2.5 million "temp jobs" will be most welcomed to avoid total deterioration of our industrial and technological base.

[luciball]

This is exactly what we need right now, a visionary who thinks outside of the box. I can hardly wait to see how this plays out. Yes we can, indeed!

[canucklivinginUSA]

I agree with you, but according to the leftist idiots at the Nation, they are not down with it

[scjk67]

-------BREAKING NEWS-------

P.E. OBAMA NAMES ROBERT GIBBS AS PRESS CHEIF.....­.

[teron678]

huh ....... old news .....

[MountPanic]

We need to bring back the WPA. It's not like we have a shortage of crumbling infrastructure in dire need of repair and modernization for the 21st century.

[Excitedforfuture]

There are tons of unsafe bridges and highways in America.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/08/20-heavily-traf.html

[MountPanic]

Exactly.

Not to mention, oh, you know, New Orleans and the thousands of people there who could be put to work rebuilding their own community.

And the national parks that haven't seen much improvement since the last WPA.

And our rail system, which could be taking a huge load off our roads and reducing emissions, not to mention vast improvements needed in urban transit.

And our communications infrastructure that is falling behind much Europe and Asia, and could be instantly more egalitarian if converted public access wi-fi bubbles were introduced to cities and towns.

And new, green energy sources to free us from foreign oil and Earth-killing carbon emissions.

We need to stop looking at this economic downturn as the end of the world and turn it into an opportunity to remake a 21st century America. Leave the "crisis" to the bankers and investors that made it. They've held a loaded economy to our heads for too long already. The government should belong to the people. Let's make it work for US again.

[Cherubim]

I suspect the Obama team are reading Senator John Edwards's old campaign initiatives, which remain posted on the web:
The Edwards Plan for a Stronger Economy and Good Jobs
"Today, John Edwards urged Congress to act as soon as possible in 2008 to pass at least $25 billion in new investments to create jobs and strengthen our economy. In addition, Congress should set aside $75 billion for additional investments in case the economy does enter a recession. His plan will strengthen our unemployment insurance system and make one-time investments in a new energy infrastructure, state aid and addressing the housing crisis. Acting now will accomplish three things: (1) make needed investments in fighting global warming and poverty, (2) create jobs and cushion the expected economic slowdown, and (3) lay the foundation for a larger job creation package if our economy slides into a recession, as some economists fear."
http://www.johnedwards.com/news/headlines/20071222-stimulus-plan/

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

What's wrong with that if he did?

[Cherubim]

I pray to God the Obama team is reading the Edwards plan.

[ucla matta]

I can only be optimistic that this manifests into reality, perhaps "hope" is indeed more than a line from his stump speech.

[FogBelter]

Sounds very promising, but does Obama think that 2.5 million jobs by 2011 is going to be enough with the situation we are in now? A good first step, maybe.

Just a note, you can't fix the US economy by allowing flight of American jobs abroad. This outsourcing of American jobs abroad is one MAJOR reason for the place we find ourselves now, and for one simple reason. One glaring factor that the MBA class has stubbornly refused to recognize for the last two decades at least.

One Company's Employee = Dozens of Company's Consumer.

You can see how a nation that relies on Consumers is ultimately undermined by outsourcing. Outsourcing, in a very real sense, is an act of Corporate Fratricide.

Conservatively we are looking at 10% unemployment in early 2009 by current estimates.

Obama and his economic team have to be realistic and pragmatic ... their responsibility is to stabilize the economy and drive us aggressively out of the ditch of Reaganomics. If they think they can, somehow, rehabilitate a fatally flawed economic ideology like Milton Friedman's then the tunnel we are in is going to be long and dark.

Obama BE BOLD!!!!

[canucklivinginUSA]

That is the whole point of creating green jobs, they can't be outsource

[FogBelter]

Perhaps, but we need more than just Green jobs.