US President Barack Obama said Saturday he hoped to sign his 825-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan into law in less than a month as he expressed confidence the country will emerge from the current crisis more prosperous than ever. “I am pleased to say that both parties in Congress are already hard at work on this plan, and I hope to sign it into law in less than a month,” Obama said in his first weekly radio address as president. He warned that the economic problems would not recede in a short period of time. But he expressed confidence that bold action will help put the country back on track. US unemployment claims hit a 26-year high and home building fell to half-century lows, highlighting the scale of the challenge faced by the new US administration. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of initial unemployment claims in the week that ended January 17 soared to 589,000, the highest level since November 1982. Last year, the US economy lost a total of 2.6 million jobs, propelling the national unemployment rated to a 16-year high of 7.2 percent. Meanwhile, the number of housing starts plunged from November to December by 15.5 percent to an annualized rate of 550,000 units, according to the Commerce Department. Obama warned that if nothing was done, the unemployment rate could reach double digits and the US economy could fall one trillion dollars short of its full capacity. But he argued that his stimulus plan, which aims to boost vast sectors of the economy while creating between three and four million new jobs, would inject new life into the shrinking economy. He said his proposal was not “just a short-term program to boost employment. “It's one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century,” he pointed out. The project dubbed American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan would generate energy from alternative sources like wind, solar and biofuels over the next three years. It provides for building a new electricity grid, including laying down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines. Obama also proposes computerizing the nation's health records in five years, renovating and modernizing 10,000 schools and rebuilding the country's infrastructure. Broadband access to the Internet will be given to millions of Americans who currently lack it. Republicans said they were concerned about the size of the package, saying it could seriously aggravate the budget deficit, which is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to reach a 1.1 trillion dollars this year. In his address, Obama tried to assure skeptics that he did not intend to, as he put it, “just throw money at our problems.” “We will launch an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov,” he said. Change from Bush policy Obama also ended a ban blocking federal money from being sent to international groups performing abortions. Obama signed a memorandum reversing the ban Friday afternoon. Clinton calls counterparts US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton telephoned the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, spokesman Robert Wood said Friday. Clinton also spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari as well other world leaders.
