Time for action on economy, warns Obama

US President Barack Obama piled pressure on Congress to approve his near $1tn (€780bn) economic stimulus plan today, telling Capitol Hill that “the time for talk is over”.

In a sign that he is getting increasingly frustrated with the slow progress of the Bill, Mr Obama warned of “bickering” at a time when urgent action is needed and hit out at the failed policies of the past.

The Senate is due to vote on the package of tax breaks and spending projects shortly. But politicians appeared today to be no closer in getting bi-partisan support for the Bill.

The size of the package currently stands at around $920bn (€717bn).

Republicans claim it is too expensive and too reliant on spending projects, which they say will not create sufficient jobs.

Last week the House of Representatives voted for the plan. But in a disappointment for the president, not one Republican approved the Bill.

Bi-partisan support was not needed for the Bill to pass through the House of Representatives, but without it Mr Obama will be open to criticism if the plan fails to drag the US economy out of the depths of recession.

For it to pass through the US’s upper house, some Republican support is required. Legislation usually needs the backing of 60 of the 100-member Senate for smooth passage. There are 56 Democratic senators.

Mr Obama has indicated that he wants something on the table to sign by mid-February.

Speaking to staff at the Department of Energy today, Mr Obama reiterated the need for urgent action.

He said: “The time for talk is over. The time for action is now, because we know that if we do not act, a bad situation will become dramatically worse. Crisis could turn into catastrophe for families and businesses across the country.”

“I refuse to let that happen. We can’t delay and we can’t go back to the same worn-out ideas that led us here in the first place.”

He also criticised Republicans in Congress who were pushing for a plan that relied on tax breaks over spending.

Mr Obama said: “In the last few days, we’ve seen proposals arise in Congress that you may not have read but you’d be very familiar with because you have been hearing them for the last 10 years, maybe longer.

“They are rooted in the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems, that government doesn’t have a role to play, that half-measures and tinkering are somehow enough, that we can afford to ignore our most fundamental economic challenge – the crushing cost of healthcare, the inadequate state of so many of our schools, our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

“Let me be clear – those ideas have been tested, and they have failed.”

Mr Obama added: “I am calling on all the members of Congress – Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate – to rise to this moment.”

He admitted that “no plan is perfect”, but added that “the scale and scope of this plan is the right one”.