The United States needs to “act and act now” to rescue the country’s troubled economy, President-elect Barack Obama declared in his weekly radio address to the nation today.
Mr Obama, who was urged by Democratic members of Congress to "be more assertive than he has been" over plans to help America's beleaguered car industry yesterday, said the nation felt "rising unease and frustration" as the total number of jobs lost in the recession reached almost two million.
He used his weekly address to set out key components of his economic recovery plan, in which he proposes to save or create at least 2.5 million jobs.
Mr Obama, who takes over from unpopular incumbent President George Bush at noon on January 20th, also promised the "single largest new investment" in the nation's infrastructure since the 1950s and "the most sweeping effort to modernise and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen".
"We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who've lost them know that they have a future," he said.
"And that's exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States."
The plan also included proposals to make public buildings more energy efficient; reduce America's dependence on oil; modernise the health care system so every hospital and doctor's office was using cutting-edge technology; and boost the deployment of broadband internet across the country.
Mr Obama told the nation: "We have faced difficult times before, times when our economic destiny seemed to be slipping out of our hands.
"And at each moment, we have risen to meet the challenge, as one people united by a sense of common purpose. And I know that Americans can rise to the moment once again."
He went on: "But we need action — and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars.
"We won't do it the old Washington way. We won't just throw money at the problem. We'll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve — by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world."