(BN) Obama Says Sacrifice Needed to Fix Economy, Some Promises Must Be Delayed
Obama Calls for Sacrifice, Scaling Back Campaign Promises
Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama said turning around the U.S. economy will require cutting back on some campaign promises and personal sacrifice from Americans.
“I want to be realistic here, not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” program, scheduled to air tomorrow. ABC posted excerpts of the interview, Obama’s first since returning to Washington as president-elect, today on its Web site.
Obama is pressing Congress to act quickly on a two-year economic stimulus plan of about $775 billion that includes new government spending and tax cuts. In appearances last week the president elect warned that failure to pass legislation enacting his proposals within the next few weeks risks letting the U.S. fall into a deeper and more prolonged recession.
The Labor Department reported yesterday that the U.S. lost almost 2.6 million jobs in 2008 and that the unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent in December, the highest level in almost 16 years. The losses were widespread, with manufacturers, builders, retailers and temporary-help agencies axing positions.
All Americans will have to sacrifice to put the economy back on track, Obama said.
“Everybody’s going to have to give,” Obama said. “Everybody’s going to have to have some skin in the game.”
Even before the stimulus plan is crafted, the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that the recession and government outlays for bailouts will push the budget deficit to at least $1.18 trillion this year. Obama said Jan. 6 that he expects similar shortfalls “for years to come.”
Some congressional Democrats have criticized the portion of the plan devoted to tax cuts, while Republicans have voiced concern about the size of the proposal and its effect on the deficit.
To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at Echen32@bloomberg.net . Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net
Find out more about Bloomberg for iPhone: http://bbiphone.bloomberg.com/iphone
Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama said turning around the U.S. economy will require cutting back on some campaign promises and personal sacrifice from Americans.
“I want to be realistic here, not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” program, scheduled to air tomorrow. ABC posted excerpts of the interview, Obama’s first since returning to Washington as president-elect, today on its Web site.
Obama is pressing Congress to act quickly on a two-year economic stimulus plan of about $775 billion that includes new government spending and tax cuts. In appearances last week the president elect warned that failure to pass legislation enacting his proposals within the next few weeks risks letting the U.S. fall into a deeper and more prolonged recession.
The Labor Department reported yesterday that the U.S. lost almost 2.6 million jobs in 2008 and that the unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent in December, the highest level in almost 16 years. The losses were widespread, with manufacturers, builders, retailers and temporary-help agencies axing positions.
All Americans will have to sacrifice to put the economy back on track, Obama said.
“Everybody’s going to have to give,” Obama said. “Everybody’s going to have to have some skin in the game.”
Even before the stimulus plan is crafted, the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that the recession and government outlays for bailouts will push the budget deficit to at least $1.18 trillion this year. Obama said Jan. 6 that he expects similar shortfalls “for years to come.”
Some congressional Democrats have criticized the portion of the plan devoted to tax cuts, while Republicans have voiced concern about the size of the proposal and its effect on the deficit.
To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at Echen32@bloomberg.net . Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net
Find out more about Bloomberg for iPhone: http://bbiphone.bloomberg.com/iphone
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