Obama rejects second stimulus program

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Saturday the $787 billion stimulus program must be given a chance to work before consideration is given to a second such jolt for the still-ailing economy.

Obama acknowledged in his weekly radio and Internet address that people are getting nervous about continuing high joblessness — the unemployment rate hit 9.5 percent in June — but said reversing payroll losses takes time. He asked Americans to be as patient as possible.

Republicans have labeled the $787 billion stimulus a failure. Both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have argued that the bulk of the money from the stimulus program is still being disbursed and that it already has saved many jobs.

Obama criticized Republicans for opposing the stimulus but offering few alternatives to the worst recession since the Great Depression. And he rejected talk of a second stimulus, an idea that has been discussed by Democrats and even famed investor Warren Buffett.

“We must let it work the way it’s supposed to, with the understanding that in any recession, unemployment tends to recover more slowly than other measures of economic activity,” Obama, who was visiting Ghana on Saturday, said in his recorded message.

The stimulus included $288 billion in tax cuts, dramatic increases in Medicaid spending, about $48 billion in highway and bridge construction and billions more to boost energy efficiency, shore up state budgets and improve schools.

The plan “was not designed to work in four months,” Obama said. “It was designed to work over two years.”

Since Obama signed the stimulus into law, the economy has lost more than 2 million jobs and the unemployment rate has climbed higher than the White House predicted it would have ever reached without the stimulus.