Obama warns of dire consequences without stimulus

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-08 23:54

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday the recession could "linger for years" unless Congress pumps unprecedented sums from Washington into the economy.

President-elect Barack Obama introduces, Nancy Killefer, not shown, to the newly created position of chief performance officer, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, at his transition office in Washington. [Agencies]

"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama said in a speech set to be delivered at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., outside Washington. Excerpts from his prepared text were released in advance by his transition team.

It was the fourth day in a row that Obama has addressed this front-burner issue and it was the highest-profile appearance yet on an issue that can define his early months in office.

His events have increasingly taken on the trappings and air of the presidency, with the speech - coming a full 12 days before he takes over at the White House - a particularly showy move. Presidents-elect typically stick to naming administration appointments and otherwise staying in the background during the transition period between Election Day and Inauguration Day, but Obama has clearly made the calculation that a nation anxious about its economic outlook and eager to bid farewell to the current president, George W. Bush, needs to hear from him differently and more frequently.

Indeed, the economic news is grim.

"A bad situation could become dramatically worse," Obama said, painting a dire picture - including double-digit unemployment and $1 trillion in lost economic activity - that recalled the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Consumers and companies are folding under the negative forces of a collapsed housing market, a global credit crunch and the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The recession, which started in December 2007, already is the longest in a quarter-century.

A report due out the same day as Obama's speech is expected to show that the number of newly laid-off people signing up for state unemployment insurance last week rose to 540,000, up from 492,000 in the previous week. The number of people continuing to draw jobless benefits is projected to stay near 4.5 million, demonstrating the troubles the unemployed are having in finding new jobs.

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