Obama demands 'immediate' stimulus action

10 Feb 2009, 7:42 am   -   Source: AFP
Share This
President Obama has left Washington to visit some of the areas most affected by the crisis (Getty)

President Obama has left Washington to visit some of the areas most affected by the crisis (Getty)

President Barack Obama has renewed his demands for Congress tp pass his huge economic stimulus plan ‘immediately’.

RELATED

A fired-up President Barack Obama demanded Congress pass his huge economic stimulus plan ‘immediately’ and warned delay and paralysis in Washington would bring only ‘deepening disaster.’

Obama took a swipe at lawmakers after flying across frozen prairies to economically-blighted Indiana in a campaign-style blitz hours before the $800 billion plus stimulus bill faced a key test in the Senate.

Later, Obama was set to further crank up the heat on insurgent Republicans who have hijacked debate on his plan with his first White House prime-time press conference, nearly three weeks into his presidency.

Obama appeals to the people

"We've had a good debate -- now it's time to act, that's why I am calling on Congress to pass this bill immediately," Obama said in Elkhart, a city where unemployment rocketed from 4.4 percent to 15.3 percent in a single year.

"Folks here in Elkhart and across America need help right now, they can't afford to keep on waiting for folks in Washington to get this done."

The president took advantage of his temporary perch outside the US capital to hit a populist note reminiscent of his two-year quest for the presidency.

"I can't tell you with one hundred percent certainty that every single item in this plan will work exactly as we hope," he said, after being welcomed to a town hall event in a high school here with chants of "Obama, Obama."

"I can tell you with complete confidence that endless delay or paralysis in Washington in the face of this crisis will bring only deepening disaster.

"I can tell you that doing nothing is not an option."

Full-vote nears

The Democratic-led Senate was expected to decide on a key procedural motion to override Republican blocking tactics and put the package to a full vote, possibly on Tuesday.

Two or three moderate Republican senators were expected to join 58 Democrats in the 100-member Senate to thwart Republican delaying tactics, after securing cuts in the size of the bill which critics say is packed full of unnecessary spending.

Obama's latest rhetoric came as a new Gallup poll showed the president had a 67-percent approval rating for how he is handling the stimulus bill, much higher than the ratings of Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

Debate extended beyond Washington

But his trip also appeared to be an attempt to regain political momentum after a string of distractions last week, including Republican attacks on his plan and the loss of several key appointees over tax questions.

After his prime-time press conference in the East Room of the White House, the president will make another barnstorming trip on Tuesday, to a hard-hit corner of Florida.

His staff announced he would also add a stop in Peoria, Illinois on Thursday, the home of earthmoving manufacturing firm Caterpillar, which recently laid off 22,000 workers.
His press secretary Robert Gibbs fleshed out Monday's strategy.

"This is not explaining to Indiana what's going on in Washington -- this is taking Washington to show them what's going on in Indiana and all over the country -- and why people are hurting," he said.

Obama's political advisor David Axelrod attempted to position the president as a spokesman for the troubles of everyday Americans angry at delays in passing the stimulus bill in Washington.

"One thing that we learned over two years... is that there's a whole different conversation in Washington than there is out here," Axelrod said aboard Air Force One.

Ongoing debate

The $827 billion Senate bill will have to be reconciled with an $820 billion version passed already by the Democratic-led House of Representatives, which devoted more to infrastructure and less to tax cuts.

Despite the outlines of a compromise brokered with the help of the centrist Republicans, senior opposition senators were adamant that Obama's mix of infrastructure spending and tax cuts would prove a massive waste of money.

"We are going down a road to financial disaster. We'll pay dearly," Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate's banking committee, told CNN Sunday.

"Until we straighten out our banking system... this economy is going to continue to tank," the senator from Alabama added.

Administration officials said Sunday that just such a program to revive the stricken banking industry and housing market would be presented Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube