The Fierce Urgency of Recovery - by Barack Obama

When you know how to write, how to communicate, you take your case directly to the public.

What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis.

Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.

That's how the president opened his straight talk about the bill in a Washington Post Op-Ed today. After carefully articulating the need to act with a sense of urgency, the President detailed the benefits of the bill.

Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans..

Now is the time to save billions by making 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings more energy-efficient,...

Now is the time to give our children every advantage they need to compete by upgrading 10,000 schools with state-of-the-art classrooms...

And now is the time to create the jobs that remake America for the 21st century by rebuilding aging roads, bridges and levees...

After detailing the benefits the President concludes

So we have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time.

Call your Senators because the supporters of those folks who want to see Obama fail are calling. These folks are focusing on less than 1% of the spending to bring the entire bill down. THAT'S A  FACT. Spending for family planning is no longer in the bill. Yet, they keep repeating it on Trash Radio. Other spending while not directly stimulating the economy create jobs nonetheless. Still, they account for less than 1% of bill.

Gov. Charlie Crist (R) of Florida is on board. Arnold Schwarzenegger is on board. These Senators and congressmen only answer to people who voted for them: Republicans who want this administration to fail. Governors lead states, not pocket voters.