U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday that his 789- billion-U.S.-dollar stimulus package is only the beginning of his efforts to revive the ailing American economy.
"Passing this plan is a critical step, but as important as it is, it's only the beginning of what, I think, all of you understand is going to be a long and difficult process of turning our economy around," said Obama in an address to business leaders at the White House.
"To truly address this crisis, we will also need to address the crisis in our financial sector to get credit flowing again to families and businesses," said the president.
"We need to confront the crisis in the housing sector, that has been one of the sources of our economic challenges, I will discussing that extensively soon," he added.
The final version of the massive stimulus plan is on track for a Friday vote in the House, and the Senate is expected to follow either later in the day or over the weekend.
Once the final bill is passed by both chambers, it would be sent to President Barack Obama to sign into law. Obama has set a Feb. 16 deadline for the package.
Obama hailed the plan, noting it will create over 3.5 million jobs in the next two years.
"It's a plan that will ignite spending by businesses and consumers, make the investments necessary for lasting economic growth and prosperity and save or create more than 3.5 million jobs over the next two years," he said.
"The goal at the heart of this plan is to create jobs, not just any jobs but jobs doing the work America needs done," said the president.
But he also warned of the difficulty. "This work will not be easy, our recovery will likely be measured in years but not months, " said Obama.
(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2009)
