Obama celebrates victory as 'major milestone'

President Obama on Saturday hailed the passage of his economic stimulus bill as a "major milestone" on the road to economic recovery but also urged the nation to prepare for more major legislation in the weeks to come.

A day after Congress passed a massive $787 billion stimulus package, the president used his weekly address to celebrate the bill, which he said would deliver "real and tangible progress" for Americans.

The bill was approved by Congress on Friday with only three Republican votes, and the president acknowledged that the passage took place "after a lively debate full of healthy difference of opinion."

Although the plan has changed considerably since it was first introduced last month, the president took ownership of the final product. Congress has passed "my economic recovery plan," he said, calling it "an ambitious plan at a time we badly need it" and once again promising that the spending measures and tax relief would help to save or create more than 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.

President Obama acknowledged critics who doubt the bill's potential effectiveness but promised he would use the legislation as a starting point to usher in a new era of government accountability and transparency.

"Now, some fear we won't be able to effectively implement a plan of this size and scope, and I understand their skepticism," Obama said. "Washington hasn't set a very good example in recent years. And with so much on the line, it's time to begin doing things differently."

The president said the goal would be to spend the hundreds of billions of dollars in the package "with unprecedented accountability, responsibility, and transparency" and said he would "challenge" state and local governments to do the same.

Obama also announced that the government's latest Web site, recovery.gov, would be up and running once the plan is put into action and said the site would allow Americans to post comments and questions about where the money was being spent.

Obama: Challenges lie ahead

With daunting challenges still ahead, the president used Saturday's speech to turn the public's attention to the next major items on his legislative agenda. In recent weeks, Obama has described the stimulus bill as one leg in the stool of his economic recovery efforts, noting the need for banking reform and housing relief as other elements.

Calling the nation's economic problems "deep and widespread," Obama said the stimulus bill "won't be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but the beginning." The president still hopes the public will support and Congress will approve his future proposals, which will cost hundreds billions of dollars more in the future. "Our response must be equal to the task," he said on Saturday.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unveiled an outline of his bank bailout plan on Tuesday of this week and markets took a nosedive in response to the lack of specificity. But Obama announced that his administration would continue with its efforts to write new laws "to stop unscrupulous speculators from undermining our economy ever again" and promised to help "responsible homeowners" stay in their homes.

Despite all the new spending, the president said he would soon submit an annual budget that would "begin to restore the discipline these challenging times demand." Obama said his plans would add to the nation's debt in the short term "in order to jumpstart our sick economy" but insisted that the government would soon need to "tame" the federal deficit."

With Republicans calling for new fiscal restraint, Obama said the government would continue to "invest in the things we need" but also pledged to "dispense with the things we don't."