President Barack Obama

At a Chicago news conference announcing his economic team, President-elect Barack Obama urged rapid passage of an economic stimulus bill by Congress, which would provide assistance to the three domestic automakers, among other financial measures.

With 57 days before he is inaugurated as the nation’s 44th president, Barack Obama warned about the ailing economy, saying that, “the economy is likely to get worse before it gets better.” He added that, “most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year.” Obama also expressed surprise at the big three auto makers, saying that he was surprised they did not have at present any well-conceived plans for recovery prior to asking Congress to approve their urgent request for $25 billion in emergency loans.

As the economic news goes from bad to disastrous, and the lame-duck President Bush becoming increasingly irrelevant, the world is already turning to President-elect Barack Obama to lead America out of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, which he plans to do in part by creating 2.5 million jobs through a major public works program that includes rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient automobiles.

President-elect Barack Obama said, “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’s objective is to steer his infrastructure investment plan rapidly through Congress, facilitated by assistance from both political parties, after Barack Obama is inaugurated as the nation’s 44th president on January 20, 2009. In his radio broadcast, Obama indicated that he sees 2.5 million new jobs added by 2011 if his plan is adopted. With the U.S. economy shedding jobs at an alarming rate, it is clear that a jobs creation program is a top priority for the incoming Obama administration.