Thursday, January 8, 2009 12:59 PM

Obama's Call For Stimulus Light On Details

By JOHN MAGGS

President-elect Barack Obama tried to rally Washington and the American people behind his massive economic stimulus plan Thursday, linking his campaign theme of change to his ambitious agenda for action on the economy.

Days away from assuming the presidency at a moment of great fear and pessimism, Obama suggested that this was instead a moment of great promise. Instead of dwelling on the many economic problems the country faces as it enters a new year, Obama called 2009 one of "the years that come along once in a generation -- the kind that mark a clean break from a troubled past, and set a new course for our nation." Obama blamed the crisis on "past mistakes" and "worn-out dogmas of the past" and tried to position his response as "a new and better course for America."

His speech, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., contained few details of his plans for the stimulus -- not even the proposal's size, which aides have reported at $775 billion over two years. A day after the government reported that the budget deficit will reach $1.2 trillion this year, Obama rejected the idea that this should limit the size of the stimulus, or the commitment of government to spend still more to confront the crisis. "There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable. It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes and confidence in our economy."

The president-elect called on Congress to "work with me and my team day and night, on weekends if necessary," to pass a stimulus plan "in the next few weeks." Congressional leaders have said it will take until at least mid-February to pass a plan. Obama called on Congress to omit earmarks and "pet projects" from the stimulus bill but seemed to open the door to them later. "Many of these projects are worthy and benefit local communities. But this emergency legislation must not be the vehicle for those aspirations."

Obama pledged to provide to unprecedented access to the process of spending the money, but didn't say much about that other than promising that Americans will be able to use the Internet to see how taxpayer money is being spent, something that is arguably already possible.

Without appropriate action, he warned, America could lose $1 trillion a year of output, or $12,000 in annual income for a family of four, representing roughly a 7 percent contraction in output -- larger than most forecasts. He said that unemployment could reach "double digits" a day after the Congressional Budget Office predicted unemployment of 9 percent by 2010.

Obama repeated his promise to "create or save 3 million jobs," a goal that, however it is defined, would represent a fairly modest recovery.

He repeated previous promises to spend government money on renewable energy, energy conservation, on building schools and refurbishing libraries.