The president was speaking to a town hall meeting of voters – a format he used in the election – in Elkhart, Indiana, where unemployment has jumped from 4.7 per cent to 15 per cent in a year.
“I can't tell you with 100 per cent certainty that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hope,” said Mr Obama. “But I can tell you with complete confidence that endless delay or paralysis in Washington in the face of this crisis will bring only deepening disaster.”
Mr Obama's first public foray outside of Washington since he took office came as the US Senate was finalising plans to vote on a compromise $827bn stimulus that was brokered with just three of the 41 Republican senators.