President Urges Congress to Act Swiftly on Stimulus Plan to Avert Deeper Recession

President Obama on February 9 urged Congress to pass an economic recovery package by the end of the week and warned that failure to act swiftly will deepen the economic crisis. "Our immediate job is to stop the downward spiral and that means putting money into consumers' pockets, it means loosening up credit, it means putting forward investments that not only employ people immediately but also lay the groundwork for long-term economic growth," Obama asserted at his first White House press conference.

The president said the bottom line when judging the effectiveness of his administration's economic policy is whether it creates or saves up to four million jobs over the next two years, normalizes the credit market and stabilizes the housing market. Obama defended the role of the federal government in trying to turn the U.S. economy around. "With the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life," he maintained.

The president argued that the economic package winding its way through Congress is designed to "break the vicious cycle where lost jobs lead to people spending less money which leads to even more layoffs." He said that tax cuts alone cannot solve the economic crisis, "especially tax cuts that are targeted to the wealthiest few Americans."

Obama maintained that tax cuts should be aimed at working families who are financially struggling to pay their bills and mortgages and the cost of their children's college tuition. He singled out the "Make Work Pay" tax credit that would provide up to $1000 worth of tax cuts to working and middle-class families and the $2,500 partially refundable higher education tax credit that is available for the first four years of college. "These steps will put more money in the pockets of those Americans who are most likely to spend it, and that will help break the cycle and get our economy moving," Obama maintained.

Earlier in the day, National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summer said that once Congress passes the economic package, its impact will begin "almost immediately." In an interview on CNN's "Situation Room," Summers said that enactment of the economic plan means that "layoffs that otherwise would have happened in cities and towns of cops and teachers won't happen. You'll see withholding schedules adjusted so that people have more money in their paychecks. You'll see orders go out for new roads, new bridges, and new computers for hospitals. You'll start to see better maintenance of schools."

Source CCH Incorporated