President Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress during primetime television viewing hours on the evening of February 24.

One month in office amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, President Barack Obama will seek to reassure the nation while walking a fine line in also telling Americans the bitter truth about how bad the economic situation is. Having just passed a stimulus bill to jumpstart the economy, the Obama administration must now attend to the banking crisis. During his address, Obama may touch on the thorny issue of whether or not the government should nationalize troubled U.S. banks.

There will be much anticipation in the United States and around the world as to what Barack Obama’s message on the global economic crisis will be.

President Barack Obama flew into Phoenix, Arizona to announce the steps his administration will take to address the housing foreclosure crisis. Speaking in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, Obama presented details on a $75 billion plan to assist homeowners facing difficulty remaining in their homes due to the nation’s economic crisis. The intent of the Obama plan is to reduce the level of housing foreclosures.

The Phoenix area has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the United States. That is the reason why Barack Obama decided to fly out to Arizona to present his housing rescue plan. Many economists believe that the foreclosure crisis in the U.S. is the principal driver behind the global economic crisis. The rate of foreclosures has multiplied alarmingly. President Obama knows that the national recession cannot be reversed unless the high level of housing foreclosures, which have also driven down housing values, is effectively addressed.

In securing his stimulus plan, Barack Obama sought bipartisan support. Ultimately, however, not a single Republican congressman voted for the stimulus bill In the Senate, only three Republican senators backed the legislation, reflecting the bare number needed for approval without the risk of a filibuster.

With the U.S. economy in a deep and worsening recession, President Barack Obama insisted that major stimulus spending was necessary to stem the hemorrhaging of jobs. Since the recession began, more than three million Americans have joined the ranks of the unemployed. President Obama has now scored an important victory, however with the economy facing grave challenges, his work is far from done. Obama will be focusing in the days ahead on the banking and housing crisis.

President Barack Obama appeared at a townhall meeting in the state of Indiana, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States due to the economic crisis. The appearance by President Obama was televised.

Barack Obama sought to sell his economic stimulus program, currently pending before Congress. Obama drew the connection between his stimulus bill and the creation of new jobs in the state of Indiana. The audience was mainly receptive to the case Obama presented to them.

After his opening remarks, President Barack Obama took questions from the audience. Most of the questions reflected concern over the worsening U.S. economy, and the measures President Obama intended to pursue to create new jobs. One questioner was critical of Obama for appointing persons to his cabinet with tax problems. When the audience began booing, Barack Obama interjected that the question was legitimate, and he proceeded to answer it.

Barack Obama, 44th President, began his term on a theme of hope. The Obama administration began to set a tone of bipartisan politics, with Barack Obama inviting Republicans to the White House. Obama met with Republican Senators and Congressmen. Republicans were even appointed to the cabinet of President Barack Obama. However, with the first major test on Capital Hill, President Obama has found that bipartisan approaches will not change reality; the Republican Party remains opposed to the Obama agenda, especially regarding the economy. In the first vote on the Obama stimulus package in the House of Representatives, every single Republican congressman, without exception, voted in opposition. Now that the Senate will be voting on Barack Obama’s economic plan, President Obama has changed his tone. He is now being competitive and combatant in fighting for his stimulus package. In media appearances, before Democratic Party leaders and in his Saturday radio and Internet broadcast, he has sharply attacked the GOP for standing in the way of his economic emergency legislation. With data on the U.S. economy getting worse as the recession deepens, President Barack Obama in now more determined than ever to get his stimulus spending bill passed by Congress, and is prepared to turn up the heat on the Republican Party.

President Barack Obama has increased pressure on Congress to pass the stimulus package he believes is essential for economic recovery. Obama is now warning Congress that, “the time for talk is over,” amid worsening economic data.

Responding to White House pressure, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid is now saying that the Senate could vote on the $900 billion stimulus package by the end of the week. Moderate Republican and Democratic senators are seeking to remove some spending elements from the stimulus bill in an attempt to enhance bipartisan support for the legislation.

“The time for talk is over, the time for action is now,” President Obama indicated in a speech he delivered at the U.S. the Energy Department. “I am calling on the members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans to rise to this moment. The scale and the scope of this plan is the right one.”

Democratic Senator Ben Nelson and his centrist Republican colleague Susan Collins have been meeting in an effort to create a listing of spending cuts in the stimulus bill. The purpose is to attract more bipartisan support. Senator Collins of Maine prefers that the stimulus bill be reduced to $650-700 billion from the current level of $900 billion.

Former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle has withdrawn his name as the nominee for Secretary of Health & Human Services. He had been the choice of President Barack Obama to steer his new agenda on health care, and his fall from grace is viewed as a blow to the new Obama administration.

Daschle had come under severe criticism for his failure to pay more than $100,000 in back taxes. A previous Obama cabinet appointee, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, also had problems with back taxes. Daschle’s tax issues were on a larger scale, and had drawn media skepticism in the context of Obama’s campaign pledge for high ethical standards in the selection of senior White House officials.

The previous day President Obama had indicated his full support for Tom Daschle as HHS secretary. What led Daschle to pull his name out of contention is a matter of media conjecture. Barack Obama will now have to scramble to find a new pick for this important cabinet position

President Barack Obama had an embarrassing situation with his nominee for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who neglected to pay $34,000 in taxes. Obama overcame that hurdle, and Geithner was confirmed. Now the President is experiencing a similar problem with his choice for Secretary of Health & Human Services, Tom Daschle. The only difference is that Daschle is far more in arrears in his back taxes.

In the meantime, the Republicans are increasing their resistance to President Barack Obama’s stimulus spending bill. Not a single GOP member of the House of Representatives voted for the Obama stimulus plan, and now the bill is being reviewed in the Senate. Many Republican senators are already on record as opposing Obama’s economic recovery plan. Here, too, a taxing issue exists, but of a different sort. The Republicans want more of the stimulus bill devoted to tax cuts and less to spending.

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, is now in his second week on the job. Already the he honeymoon with the Republicans has worn off, as they and President Obama battle over the final form of the economic stimulus package.