Obama outlines plan to create 2.5M jobs

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday outlined his plan to create 2.5 million jobs in coming years to 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 in the weekly Democratic radio address. 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.”
Aides said the economic plan outlined Saturday went further that the president-elect has gone before.
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.”
Figures out this week showed new claims for jobless aid had reached a 16-year high. “If we don’t act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year,” Obama said.
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.
On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to 542,000. That marked the highest level since July 1992 and provided fresh evidence of a rapidly weakening job market that is expected to get even worse next year.
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.”
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On the Net:
Video link to Obama’s address: www.change.gov

Obama fills out White House communications team

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan Saturday he said would create 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing 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 in the weekly Democratic radio address.

The goal is to get the plan quickly through Congress, with help from both parties, after Obama takes office Jan. 20. The plan, which envisions those new jobs by January 2011, is “big enough to meet the challenges we face,” he said. The president-elect said he has asked his economic advisers to flesh out the recovery plan – one “big enough to meet the challenges we face. … We’ll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jump-start job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy.”

Obama noted the growing evidence the country is “facing an economic crisis of historic proportions” and said he was pleased Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits this past week. But, he added, `We must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again.”

Nonetheless, he said, “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.”

It will take support from Democrats and Republicans to pass the economic plan, Obama said. “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.”

People “are lying awake at night wondering if next week’s paycheck will cover next month’s bills,” if their jobs will remain, if their retirement savings will disappear, he added.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said congressional Democrats will “continue pushing for aggressive but necessary measures. Part of that is passing a substantial economic recovery package, like the one President-elect Obama discussed this morning, that creates good-paying jobs here in America and stabilizes a volatile market.”

In a slap at President George W. Bush, Reid added, “We will soon finally have a leader and partner in the White House who recognizes the urgency with which we must turn around our economy, and I look forward to working with him and the new Congress to do so.”

The Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level since July 1992, providing fresh evidence of the weakening job market.

“We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels,” Obama said. He also made a commitment to fuel-efficient cars and alternative energy technologies “that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead.”

Obama pointed to the past, saying that Americans in this country’s darkest hours have risen above their divisions to solve their problems, as a hope for the future.

“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.”

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AP Special Correspondent David Espo contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Video link to Obama’s address: http://www.change.gov

Barack Obama vows to rebuild US

US President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to pull troops out of Iraq, crush al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and shut down the Guantanamo Bay camp as part of a dramatic foreign policy break with George W. Bush.

Repairing the stricken US economy would be priority No.1, even at the cost of still-bigger budget deficits, Mr Obama said in his first major post-election interview broadcast on CBS program 60 Minutes overnight.

Following his election triumph of November 4, Mr Obama said at least one Republican would be in his cabinet and confirmed that he had met former Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton last week.

But he would not comment on speculation linking the former first lady to the job of secretary of state.

The man who will be the first black US president is accelerating his transition to inauguration day, resigning his senate seat yesterday and appointing three more top aides to serve in his White House once he succeeds Mr Bush.

Mr Obama said that as soon as that happens on January 20: “I will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my national security apparatus, and we will start executing a plan that draws down our troops” from Iraq.

“Particularly in light of the problems that we’re having in Afghanistan, which has continued to worsen. We’ve got to shore up those efforts,” Mr Obama said in the interview, which was taped on Friday.

On the campaign trail, Mr Obama vowed to pull one or two combat brigades out of Iraq every month until after 16 months, only a residual security force of unspecified size remains. Some of those brigades would head to Afghanistan.

He told CBS that “it is a top priority for us to stamp out al-Qaeda once and for all” and that killing or capturing the group’s mastermind Osama bin Laden was “critical” to US security.

Mr Obama pledged to tackle controversial offshoots of Mr Bush’s “war on terror” – the US military’s internment camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and harsh interrogations of captured terror suspects.

“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that,” he said.

“I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture. And I’m going to make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world,” he said.

But he did not elaborate on where the Guantanamo prisoners would be taken, whether they would be transferred to civilian custody in the United States itself, put on trial, or released.

A command to redeploy troops out of Iraq or shut down Guantanamo could be done in short order under Mr Obama’s presidential prerogatives, and he is expected to reverse a slew of other contentious executive orders signed by Mr Bush.

Economy a priority

Mr Obama said that in Congress, his first legislative priority was getting another stimulus package passed to prop up the enfeebled economy, if Democrats in the outgoing legislature failed to overcome Republican opposition.

Mr Obama said it would be a “disaster” for the Government to stand by and let the cash-strapped General Motors and the auto industry in general collapse.

In line with the outcome of a summit on Saturday of the world’s 20 biggest economies, the President-elect said forging new regulation of the financial markets was essential to restoring the trust of consumers.

Mr Obama appeared unconcerned about the red ink blotting the US Government’s finances, arguing economists from left and right agreed that “we have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again”.

“And that we shouldn’t worry about the deficit next year or even the year after. That short term, the most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession,” he said.

Joined by his wife Michelle in the interview, Mr Obama said their two young daughters would get their promised dog, and expressed hope that Michelle’s mother Marian Robinson would move in with them at their new residence.

Mr Obama, a gifted writer who has authored two best-selling memoirs, turned wistful as he anticipated life in the White House fishbowl.

“That’s something that I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. I mean, the loss of anonymity,” he said.

“And this is not a complaint, this is part of what you sign up for.”

Europe leaders hail Obama victory

European leaders have hailed the triumph of Democrat  Obama Baracka in the US presidential election.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the victory was “brilliant”, while UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed Mr Obama’s “vision for the future”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the result was “historic”, while the European Commission president called for “a new deal for a new world”.

Moscow said it was expecting a “fresh approach” in US relations with Russia.

Mr Obama beat Republican John McCain to become the first black US president.

“At a time when we must face huge challenges together, your election has raised enormous hope in France, in Europe and beyond,” Mr Sarkozy said.

Barack Obama greets the crowd at Grant Park, Chicago, 4 Nov
The global financial crisis will be a big test for Barack Obama

“France and Europe… will find a new energy to work with America to preserve peace and world prosperity,” the French leader acted.

In London, Mr Brown said: “The relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is vital to our prosperity and security.

“Barack Obama ran an inspirational campaign, energising politics with his progressive values and his vision for the future.”

Mrs Merkel said that the German government was “fully aware of the importance and of the worth of our transatlantic partnership”.

Meanwhile, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the world now needed the EU and US to forge “a new deal” to tackle the continuing global financial crisis and other major issues.

“We need to change the current crisis into a new opportunity. We need a new deal for a new world,” Mr Barroso said.

In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said “everyone has the right to expect a fresh approach from the United States to all the most important problems, including… relations with Russia”.

With the economy in recession and the US at war on two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Obama faces profound questions that will require quick answers, the BBC’s Kevin Connolly says.

The president-elect though will have at least one asset no other American president since John F Kennedy has enjoyed – a huge reservoir of international goodwill, our correspondent adds.

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