WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama struck a balance between grim economic reality and a more hopeful outlook on Tuesday to try to reassure worried Americans their country will emerge from crisis "...
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama struck a balance between grim economic reality and a more hopeful outlook on Tuesday to try to reassure worried Americans their country will emerge from crisis "stronger than before."
Riding high in opinion polls, Obama was careful to include a sober assessment of the economic emergency in his first speech to Congress, seeking to temper expectations that his administration's rescue efforts would yield quick fixes.
But the politician whose memoir was called "The Audacity of Hope" and who won the White House in last November's election amid chants of "yes, we can" was also back in stride, telling recession-weary Americans to expect better days ahead.
"While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover," Obama said in the televised speech.
"And the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," he told a chamber packed with lawmakers, cabinet members and invited guests.
The Democratic president also leveled a barrage of indirect criticism at his Republican predecessor George W. Bush for the country's economic plight and bloated debt, warning that the "day of reckoning" had arrived.
Five weeks after taking office, Obama pressed the case for his economic plans while laying out a broad agenda, including a much-anticipated push for a healthcare overhaul and energy independence, to help build momentum for his young presidency.
The primetime State of the Union-style address to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives came against a backdrop of growing anxiety across the country in the face of the worst financial meltdown in decades.
While his public support is strong, Wall Street remains skeptical of his economic remedies.
Jittery investors sent U.S. stocks to a 12-year low on Monday, but the markets rallied on Tuesday on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's assurances that the country's troubled banks should be able to weather the downturn without being nationalized.
Trying to show he would make good on his promise of fiscal responsibility, Obama said he had identified $2 trillion in budget cuts over the next decade.
Obama, who rolls out his first budget proposal on Thursday, has vowed to halve the annual deficit by the end of his term.
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as soon as a congresman sighns a pice of legislation that he has not red, he no longer represents the people! he now blindly represents the intrests of the bill. thay should be removed to find a true representitive of the people
Obama is spending three times as quickly as Bush, without accomplishing anything. His plan to socialize medicine goes against the most basic of Constitutional ideals.
We are the only industrialized country without universal health care. We are the only country that has medical bankruptcies. Not all universal health care plans are socialistic. Switzerland has private insurers with the state covering the poor. Our situation is a scandal.
Obama inspired me,when I got laid off from my job,my insurance explained to me that I am eligible for Obama's ARRA which reduce my family's health insurance upto 75% off while i'm unemployed.He is trying to carry Americans climbing up from a big fall of recession,but it breaks my heart how other people drag him down with their stupid theory, specially his own race and own fellow Muslims...tsk..tsk..tsk...
im muslims who is a young 19 year old teenager and i am really happy that i wasn't gullable enough to vote obama. i voted for McCain and i am proud of that
Obama is a legal citizen he was born here in the US and there is no conspiracy. Most of the US is just so stupid that we elected this dumb ass to lead our country. People were to afraid to say anything bad about him when he was running cause they were to afraid to be called racist.
You're an Idiot. Where has it been proven that he isn't a US citizen? You do realize that "birthers" like you are part of a crazy group of conspirators?
The "Kenyan" birth certificate was already called a forgery and holds no merit whatsoever. But I suppose that you can't argue with a believer in a conspiracy.
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The "Kenyan" birth certificate was already called a forgery and holds no merit whatsoever. But I suppose that you can't argue with a believer in a conspiracy.