Amid signs that his proposed economic $775 billion stimulus plan is supported by a majority but not whoppingly huge majority of the American public, President Elect Barack Obama is continuing to press hard for its passage — and has used his weekly radio/You Tube address to now boost the estimate of jobs it would create to some nearly 4 million.
President-elect Barack Obama said his two-year plan to boost the U.S. economy will generate up to 4 million jobs, higher than his previous estimates, the biggest portion of them in construction, manufacturing and retail.
The plan would also result in the U.S. gross domestic product increasing by 3.7 percent more by the end of 2010 than it would without the stimulus, according to a study compiled by Obama’s economic advisers. The study gives a forecast based on a package of spending and tax cuts totaling “slightly over” the $775 billion that has been discussed by the transition team with members of Congress.
“The jobs we create will be in businesses large and small across a wide range of industries,” Obama said in his weekly radio address today. “And they’ll be the kind of jobs that don’t just put people to work in the short term, but position our economy to lead the world in the long-term.”
The address and the forecast are being released together a day after the government reported that the nation lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008, just shy of the 2.75 million decline at the end of World War II. The unemployment rate hit 7.2 percent in December, the highest since January 1993. Even with the stimulus plan, Obama’s advisers say the jobless rate will remain at about 7 percent by the end of 2010.
It’s clear by the way Obama is using his radio address — posting it on the Internet — and by the large number of press conferences that he has held since winning the election that he intends to make communication a major part of the way he’s going to use his “bully pulpit” of the Presidency.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.