WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama Monday aims to grab back lost momentum with his first White House press conference and a trip to unemployment-blighted Indiana with his stimulus plan facing a key Senate test.
Obama hopes to drive the 800 billion dollar plus package through Congress before the end of the week, and is warning of an imminent economic catastrophe if his self-imposed deadline is allowed to slip.
His campaign-style blitz, with a quick trip to 2008 electoral battleground Indiana before the 8 pm (0100 GMT) press conference is a key test of Obama's leverage after insurgent Republicans hijacked the stimulus debate last week.
It will also allow him to take his case for the plan directly to American voters who gave him a mandate for change last November, after spending the first three weeks of his presidency largely lobbying lawmakers in Washington.
Obama will Monday travel to Elkhart, Indiana, which has been hammered by the economic crisis, where the unemployment rate has rocketed from 4.7 percent to 15.3 percent over the last year.
He is set to hold a town-hall style meeting similar to the scores of such events he took part in during two years on the campaign trail, a day before a similar planned event in a suffering corner of Florida.
Obama is expected to highlight the painful job losses in Elkhart and also point to a sheaf of infrastructure projects included in the stimulus bill which he says will create or safeguard more than three million jobs nationwide.
On Saturday, the president welcomed signs of a tentative deal by senators on the stimulus plan, following news that the US economy shed a staggering 598,000 jobs in January.
"If we don't move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe," Obama said.
The Democratic-led Senate was Monday expected to decide on a key procedural motion to override Republican blocking tactics and put the package to a full vote, possibly Tuesday.
The Democrats control 58 votes in the Senate and need 60 to break through a Republican "filibuster." They appear to have the support of at least three Republican moderates -- Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter.
Despite the outlines of a compromise brokered with the help of the centrist Republicans, senior opposition senators were adamant that Obama's mix of infrastructure spending and tax cuts would prove a massive waste of money.
"We are going down a road to financial disaster. We'll pay dearly," Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate's banking committee, told CNN Sunday.
"Until we straighten out our banking system ... this economy is going to continue to tank," the Alabama senator added.
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