Approving stimulus headlines Obama’s list Priority plan to aid jobless, poor Americans

In his first news conference as president-elect, he acknowledged challenges.

CHICAGO (AP) — Even Barack Obama can’t change the calendar.

The president-elect said Friday he wanted to act urgently and deal “head on” with the nation’s economic crisis. But he recognized that his power was limited by the fact that George Bush will be running things until Jan. 20.

“The United States has only one government and one president at a time,” Obama said Friday at his first news conference since winning the presidency three days earlier.

Inheriting an economy in peril, Obama spoke confidently yet soberly in a setting far different from the Tuesday night rally celebrating him and his historic victory. He warned that the nation faces the challenge of a lifetime and pledged he would act to help Americans devastated by lost jobs, disappearing savings and homes seized in foreclosure. But the man who promised change cautioned against hopes of quick solutions.

“It is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in,” he said.

The No. 1 priority, Obama said, is to get Congress to approve an economic stimulus plan that would extend jobless benefits, send food aid to the poor, dispatch Medicaid funds to states and spend tens of billions of dollars on public works projects. If the plan is not approved this month, in a special session of Congress, Obama said that “it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States.”

In his first appearance since a jubilant election-night celebration, Obama sought to project an air of calm and reassurance to a deeply worried nation. He stood in a presidential-like setting with an array of eight American flags and a lectern showing a presidential seal above the words “The Office of the President Elect.” The stage behind him was lined with advisers he had summoned, his economic brain trust.

Almost 20 minutes late to his first meeting with reporters, Obama spoke for just 20 minutes and broke no ground with new policy announcements or disclosures of who would be in his Cabinet. In lighthearted moments, he joked about seances with dead presidents and the appeal of animal shelter dogs that are “mutts like me.”

Constrained by the fact that he will not take office until Jan. 20, Obama deferred to President Bush and his economic team on major decisions.

Declaring he would not respond to issues “in a knee-jerk fashion,” Obama declined to say how he would deal with Iran, whose president sent a letter of congratulations to Obama. “I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president and I won’t be until January 20th,” he said.

A new jobless report offered no comfort. The unemployment rate climbed to a 14-year high in October, and 10.1 million people were out of work. In Detroit, General Motors reported a huge third-quarter loss and said it may run out of cash next year. Ford planned more job cuts after burning through billions of dollars of its own.

While standing back as long as Bush is president, Obama said his advisers would keep close watch on the administration’s efforts to unlock frozen credit and stabilize financial markets. Obama said he wanted to make sure the Bush administration was “protecting taxpayers, helping homeowners and not unduly rewarding the management of financial firms that are receiving government assistance.”

Obama spoke after he and Vice President-elect Joe Biden met privately with economic advisers to discuss ways to stabilize the economy.

“We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we’re going to have to act swiftly to resolve it,” Obama said.