Obama pledges to take urgent steps to address economic crisis

Chicago, Nov 8 (PTI) Vowing to confront head on the
"greatest economic challenge" facing the U.S., President-elect
Barack Obama Saturday said he would act "swiftly" to ease the
crisis and focus on job creation and giving tax relief to
"struggling" American families.

The 47-year-old Democrat from Illinois, the first
Afro-American to be voted to the White House, said his first
priority would be to pass "a stimulus package" if it is not
adopted before his inauguration on January 20.

"We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our
lifetime and we're going to have to act swiftly to resolve
it," Obama told his first press conference after his landslide
victory in the historic November 4 polls.

"Immediately after I become President, I will confront
this economic crisis head on by taking all necessary steps to
ease the credit crisis, help hard-working families and restore
growth and prosperity."

The current financial crisis is spilling out into the
rest of the economy, Obama said, adding although some action
has been taken to address the issue, more steps are needed.
"My transition team is going to be monitoring very closely
what happens over the course of the next several months."

The one thing, the President-elect said, "I can say with
certainty is that we are going to need to see a stimulus
package passed either before or after inauguration."

The Democrat, who met his council of economic advisers
before addressing the media, said he wanted to see a stimulus
package sooner rather than later. "If it does not get done in
the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I (will) get
done as President of the United States," Obama said.

A new President, Obama said, can "enormously" help to
restore confidence and move an agenda forward that speaks of
the needs of the economy and that of the middle-class families
across the country. "I've outlined during the course of the
campaign some critical issues that I intend to work on."

"We are going to have to focus on jobs, because the
hemorrhaging of jobs has an impact, obviously, on consumer
confidence and the ability of people to -- to buy goods and
services and can have enormous spillover effects.

"And I think it's going to be very important for us to
provide the kinds of assistance to state and local governments
to make sure that they don't compound some of the problems
that are already out there by having to initiate major layoffs
or initiate tax increases," Obama said.

His priority, the Democrat said, is going to be, how do
we grow the economy and create more jobs. "I think that the
plan that we've put forward is the right one, but, obviously,
over the next several weeks and months, we're going to be
continuing to take a look at the data and see what's taking
place in the economy as a whole."

"But, understand, the goal of my plan is to provide tax
relief to families that are struggling, but also to boost the
capacity of the economy to grow from the bottom up," he said.

In his opening comments during the 20-minute press
conference, he outlined the list of things he is planning to
do soon after taking oath that include a rescue plan for the
middle class and a review of the financial programmes.

"... I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that
lies ahead. We have taken some major action to date, and we
will need further action during this transition and subsequent
months. Some of the choices that we make are going to be
difficult. And I have said before and I will repeat again: It
is not going to be quick, and it is not going to be easy for
us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in."

Describing America as "a strong and resilient country",
Obama said "I know we will succeed, if we put aside
partisanship and politics and work together as one nation.
That's what I intend to do."

Obama said President George W Bush has invited him and
his wife to the White House next week and that he will be
going there in a spirit of bipartisanship.

"I'm not going to anticipate problems. I'm going to go
in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both
the President and various leaders in Congress all recognise
the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff
done.

"The critical point and I think the critical tone that
has to be struck by all of us involved right now is the
American people need help. This economy is in bad shape. And
we have just completed one of the longest election cycles in
recorded history," the President-elect said.

"Now is a good time for us to set politics aside for a
while and think practically about what will actually work to
move the economy forward. And it's in that spirit that I'll
have the conversation with the President," Obama said.

Replying to a question on Iran, Obama said Tehran's
"development of a nuclear weapon I believe is unacceptable"
and added "we have to mount an international effort to prevent
that from happening. Iran's support of terrorist organisations
I think is something that has to cease."

" ... how we approach and deal with a country like Iran
is not something that we should, you know, simply do in a
knee-jerk fashion. I think we've got to think it through."

Obama also declined to get into the nature of
intelligence briefing he received for the first time on
Thursday by the Director of the National Intelligence. "...if
there was something I had heard, I couldn't tell you."