CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Rules of Retirement Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts

Obama pushes lame-duck agenda

President-elect says lawmakers need to work this week on creating jobs, helping families and unemployed.

EMAIL  |   PRINT  |   SHARE  |   RSS
 
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)

Photos
How Obama should fix the economy How Obama should fix the economy How Obama should fix the economy
Real people across the country answer the question: How will Obama affect your wallet? And what do you think the new President and Congress needs to do to right the economy - both in the short run and the long term?

(CNN) -- -- President-elect Barack Obama urged Congress on Saturday to work this coming week on a plan to help the country's economy and in particular address unemployment insurance.

"If Congress does not pass an immediate plan that gives the economy the boost it needs, I will make it my first order of business as president," he said in his weekly address, which is posted online.

"I urge them to pass at least a down payment on a rescue plan that will create jobs, relieve the squeeze on families and help get the economy growing again," Obama said.

"In particular, we cannot afford to delay providing help for the more than one million Americans who will have exhausted their unemployment insurance by the end of this year."

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Thursday, 76% of Americans said they believe it is likely that Obama will improve economic conditions. In addition, 73% of those surveyed said they believe that Obama will bring stability to the financial markets.

Obama, who won 53 percent of the popular vote on Nov. 4, takes office Jan. 20. Many have compared the obstacles that face him to those Franklin Delano Roosevelt confronted when he won the 1932 election.

"Make no mistake," Obama warned Saturday. "This is the greatest economic challenge of our times."

However, he added, "I am more hopeful than ever that America will rise once again." To top of page

Features
Markets Last Change
Dow Jones 10,466.44 1.51 / 0.01%
Nasdaq 2,269.64 16.97 / 0.75%
S&P 500 1,120.59 2.57 / 0.23%
10-year Bond 96 30/32 Yield: 3.74%
U.S.Dollar 1 euro = $1.435 0.003
December 23, 2009 12:00 AM ET
CompanyPrice% Change
YRC Worldwide Inc 1.03 -9.65%
Gannett Co Inc 15.44 7.15%
Chiquita Brands International Inc 17.78 6.34%
Micron Technology Inc 9.93 5.53%
Dec 23 3:53pm ET †
More Galleries
Biggest losers: Where Americans aren't moving Through most of the decade Florida was one of the fastest growing states. But the sunny clime -- and 6 others -- lost more residents than they gained in the year ended July 1. More
8 hot cars: Class of 2000 In just 10 years, the market's changed a lot when it comes to cars. Where are these models now? The Prius became a hit; the Aztek got killed. More
Obama's Main Street favorites President Obama meets often with small business owners, peppering his speeches with their stories. We checked in with 6 entrepreneurs touted by the President to find out how they handle health care. More
Sponsors

© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Advertising Practices.
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.