President-elect Barack Obama said his economic stimulus plan to create or save 2.5 million new jobs will cost “a significant amount of money on the front end,” addressing reports his team is weighing a package between $850 billion and $1 trillion.
“We’re not intending to spend money lightly,” Mr. Obama said Friday at a news conference in Chicago announcing the final members of his economic team. “[We will] focus singlemindedly on job creation, increasing demand, getting the economy back on track, fixing our financial markets. That is going to cost a significant amount of money on the front end.”
He said economists from both “the left and the right” have said the economy is poised to get much worse, given layoffs, the weakened housing market and credit freezing up.
“Unless you have a bold approach you could see the economy continuing to decline at a pretty rapid clip,” he said. “That is not acceptable to me.”
He refused to give a dollar figure when asked by a reporter about the proposal that is taking shape behind closed doors, saying the team has not finalized the plan but aims to “make the best decision that we can with the hand that we’re dealt.”
His advisers have privately said the $850 billion figure is realistic, spread over two years.
“The tax burden on Americans [is] already high. … I’m a taxpayer like everybody else and I don’t want to see money wasted,” Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Obama said the team he’s assembled will be focused on the “jump-start” to the economy but also at the long-term financial health of the nation. He said they aim to change how business is done in Washington and that if the government spends money on a new road, “it better not be a road to nowhere.”
If there is a new bridge in the works, “it better be because an engineer identified a bridge that has a structural weakness that must be dealt with.”
The remarks came as Mr. Obama announced his choices for four new members of his incoming administration, praising himself for completing his economic team at a faster pace than previous presidents-elect.
Mr. Obama named Rep. Ray LaHood, Illinois Republican, to be transportation secretary, Rep. Hilda L. Solis, California Democrat, to be labor secretary and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk to be U.S. trade representative.
He also chose Maine venture capitalist Karen Mills to lead the Small Business Administration.
Each stressed job creation.
Mr. Obama said Ms. Solis is a “champion for our middle class” and “an advocate for everyday people” as someone who has been “blazing new trails every step of the way.”
Under her the Labor Department, the nation “will once again stand up for working families,” he said.
In brief remarks in both English and Spanish, Ms. Solis, who is the third Hispanic to be named to the Obama Cabinet, said she aims to “strengthen the labor force.”
She also lauded her colleague Mr. LaHood, who is retiring from his Illinois seat in Congress, as someone with “fair-handed demeanor.”
Mr. LaHood said Mr. Obama’s agenda would be his agenda, and promised to “put aside partisan labels and work together for the good of the American people.”
Mr. Obama said transportation secretary will be a critical post in his economic stimulus plan, which aims to create or save 2.5 million jobs by improving the nation’s roads and bridges.
“We have a task before us to rebuild America,” Mr. LaHood said, adding that he would listen to governors, mayors and other local officials to improve the nation’s transportation infrastructure.
“I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and move forward,” he said.
Mr. Kirk said he intends to promote a progressive pro-trade agenda, adding: “America is open for business.”
Neither he nor Mr. Obama mentioned the North American Free Trade Agreement, a central issue that Mr. Obama on the campaign trail promised to reform.
Ms. Mills said she would make sure the federal government is a partner for small businesses.
It was Mr. Obama’s 13th news conference since Election Day. He has taken 55 questions.
Friday’s appointments were his last before leaving for a holiday vacation to Hawaii with his family. They are expected to attend a private memorial service for his grandmother, who died on the eve of the election.
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