Obama: 'Millions of jobs' in danger next year
President-elect outlines recovery plan, warns worst may be yet to come
msnbc.com news services
updated 14 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Saturday that he was crafting an aggressive, two-year stimulus plan to revive the troubled economy, warning that swift action was needed to prevent a deep slump and a spiral of falling prices.
"If we don't act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year," Obama said in prepared remarks for the weekly Democratic radio and video address.
"We now risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further," he said.
A day after U.S. stock markets rallied on his apparent choice of Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary, Obama gave a bleak assessment of the economy in his most detailed comments on the subject since winning the Nov. 4 election.
Obama in October called for a $175 billion stimulus measure, but his comments in the radio address on Saturday signaled he was prepared to push for a much larger package, though he did not give a price-tag.
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."
The proposal for a two-year stimulus plan further indicated a sizable effort. Most such plans are aimed at covering a one-year period.
The number of Americans on the unemployment rolls surged to the highest in 16 years, up more than 540,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
'Ignored for far too long'
Obama said his plan would 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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
- Re: Obama: 'Millions of jobs' in danger next yearposted on 11/22/2008
And he wanted to create 2.5 millions new job by 2011. - posted on 11/22/2008
You have to first eliminate jobs in order to create new ones. This is similar to the law of conservation of mass. We might call it the law of conservation of jobs. :) Jobs cannot be created or destroyed; they can only be rearranged or transferred from one form to another, or from one place to another.
Any claim, especially by a politican during the election year, of plans to create new jobs should be dismissed immediately, as such a claim is a violation of the new form of the conservation law.
You have to first eliminate jobs in order to create new ones. This is similar to the law of conservation of mass. We might call it the law of conservation of jobs. :) Jobs cannot be created or destroyed; they can only be rearranged or transferred from one form to another, or from one place to another.
Any claim of plans to create new jobs should be dismissed immediately , as such a claim is a violation of the new form of conservation law.
But I have no doubt in my mind Obama will be able to "create" 2.5 million new jobs way before 2011. When the auto industry goes belly up, more than 2.5 million jobs will be lost. It doesn't take a genius to come up with a plan to hire 2.5 million people from more than 2.5 million unemployed people.
As an example, although the car business is dying here, the ship-building industry is booming elsewhere, especially in Somali. There more and more people are interested in getting into a business that combines classic romanticism, traditional European styled adventurism, and modern American model of low-risk, high return capitalism: Piracy. If many American jobs have been lost in the war against terrorists, many American jobs may be regained in the war against pirates. By transforming car-makers into ship-makers, especially by acting on the principle of global equality (which would enable the sales of armed ships to African governments and pirates alike), the U.S. economy will rise again!
rzp wrote:
And he wanted to create 2.5 millions new job by 2011. - Re: Obama: 'Millions of jobs' in danger next yearposted on 11/22/2008
He is the most sexist president ever.
Please paste HTML code and press Enter.
(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation