U.S. President Barack Obama warned his fellow Americans Saturday that no single administrative measure will be able to single-handedly pull the country out of the economic doldrums.
"No one bill, no matter how comprehensive, can cure what ails our economy," he said in his second presidential radio address, broadcast on radio and on the Internet on Saturday.
"So just as we jump-start job creation, we must also ensure that markets are stable, credit is flowing and families can stay in their homes."
On Friday, government economists said the national economy shrank 3.8 per cent over the final three months of 2008 and is expected to decline even further during the current quarter. It was the latest sign that America's economic troubles are worsening.
The president and his staff are currently working on adjusting the US$700 billion financial bailout program signed into law by President George Bush last October. At present, the bailout has only $350 billion left for investment.
Some of Obama's aides suggest the president may ask Congress for more money to tackle what he described as the "devastating" economic problems at hand.
On Saturday, Obama didn't give concrete details on how his administration would allocate the remaining bailout dollars, but said his ideal bailout would include "a strategy for reviving our financial system that gets credit flowing to businesses and families."
"We'll help lower mortgage costs and extend loans to small businesses so they can create jobs. We'll ensure that CEOs are not draining funds that should be advancing our recovery."
And as the president has promised, any incoming financial package will be subject to "unprecedented transparency" measures Americans will be able to use to follow their money as it is invested, Obama said.
The president also said the full details of his bailout efforts will "soon" be announced by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Last week, Obama's $825 billion stimulus package -- a separate investment of taxpayer dollars that is unrelated to the bailout money introduced by Bush -- was passed in the House even though not a single Republican voted for it. Now it must pass through the Senate, though Vice President Joe Biden has said it will do better with the GOP the second time around.
The Republican Party signalled Saturday that it was willing to work with the president on his stimulus plan, but said party members hold concerns about the level of spending included in the plan.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a Republican radio address that "a problem that started on Wall Street is reaching deeper and deeper into Main Street."
McConnell said, however, that Obama's stimulus plan, as tabled, "falls short of the president's vision for a bill that creates jobs and puts us on a path to long-term economic help."
He said he hopes the Obama administration will listen to their concerns.
With files from The Associated Press
