Obama: Budget Is Key to Economic Recovery

President Obama took to the primetime airwaves last night to make the case that his economic recovery plan is showing "signs of progress," the Washington Post reports. "We will recover from this recession," he asserted, emphasizing repeatedly that his budget is "inseparable" from that recovery, with its emphasis on job creation and reform. Nearly every question at the press conference focused on the economy, and Obama sought to tamp down anger toward Wall Street in the wake of hugely unpopular AIG bonuses.

“I’m as angry as anybody about those bonuses,” he said. "At the same time, we can't demonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit." When pressed by a reporter about his delay in expressing outrage over the bonuses, he countered tartly, "It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak." Obama again hit back at GOP budget critics for having a "short memory" on debt. "As I recall, I'm inheriting a $1.3 trillion annual deficit from them," he said. He closed by emphasizing that it will take patience and determination to lick the economic crisis. "I'm a big believer in persistence." (More President Obama stories.)