Obama calls for dramatic action on economy

Warning of dire consequences if nothing is done, President-elect Barack Obama called for bold and "dramatic action" on Thursday to rescue the ailing economy.

"We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime," Obama said. "Nearly two million jobs have now been lost, and on Friday we are likely to learn that we lost more jobs last year than at any time since World War II."

Speaking at George Mason University in Virginia, Obama called for a stimulus plan that he said would create more than 3 million jobs over the next several years.

"I don't believe it's too late to change course," he said, "but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible." The president-elect warned that if nothing is done, the current recession could "linger for years," bringing about double-digit unemployment and the loss of a chance for young people to go to college. "In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse," he said.

Obama's remarks were billed as a major speech and delivered on the same day when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly promised that Congress would send a stimulus package to the new president by mid-February.

In what seemed to some TV pundits to be a departure from his bipartisan rhetoric of inclusion, the incoming president also took an apparent swipe at past leadership for pushing the "worn-out dogmas of the past." Obama said the nation "arrived at this point due to an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington, DC."

In an announcement on its Web site, the Obama camp promised the president-elect's new proposal, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, would "jumpstart job creation and long-term growth. The plan called for:

• Doubling the production of alternative energy in the next three years.
• Modernizing more than 75 percent of federal buildings
• Improving the energy efficiency of 2 million American homes
• Computerizing all American medical records within 5 years
• Equipping schools with "21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries"
• Expanding nationwide broadband services, and
• Investing in science, research, and technology.

"There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable," Obama said in his speech, adding that it would "certainly add to the budget deficit in the short-term." But he said "the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all" would certainly "lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes, and confidence in our economy."

"We need to act boldly and act now to reverse these cycles," Obama said, and called on lawmakers "to put money in the pockets of the American people, create new jobs, and invest in our future."