WASHINGTON – Standing before the nation on a "day of reckoning," President Barack Obama summoned politicians and public alike Tuesday night to forge a path out of the worst economic disaster in a quarter-century by embracing shared sacrifice and costly new endeavors to improve health care, schools and the environment."The time to take charge of our future is here," Obama declared in his first address to a joint session of Congress, watched by millions of worried Americans on television and the Internet.
Adding words of reassurance, he said, "Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."
Obama had to wade his way into a chamber packed with lawmakers eager to welcome the nation's first black president into a Capitol built by slaves. The House gallery included a special section hosted by first lady Michelle Obama, where guests served as living symbols of the president's goals. Cramming the floor was virtually the entire leadership of the federal government, including Supreme Court justices, led by Ruth Bader Ginsberg, back on the bench only this week after cancer surgery, and all but one Cabinet member, held away in case disaster struck. Obama's 52-minute speech was interrupted 61 times by applause.
To deal with the current economic crisis, deepening each day, the president said more money would be needed to rescue troubled banks beyond the $700 billion already committed last year. He said he knows that bailout billions for banks are unpopular — "I promise you, I get it," he said — but he also insisted it was the only way to get credit moving again to households and businesses, the lifeblood of the American economy.
Along with aid for banks, he also called on Congress to move quickly on legislation to overhaul regulations on the nation's financial markets.
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