Administration Says Economic Plans Already Showing Results

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2009— -- It was a day of cheerleading for both the economy and the Obama administration itself.

As the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to extend Monday's losses and Wall Street's concerns that President Obama's economic plan will not work escalated, the president added a new note to his song about how the economy will get better -- by encouraging Americans to buy and invest.

"I'm absolutely confident that they will work," Obama said of his administration's economic plans during a photo opportunity with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "And I'm absolutely confident that credit is going to be flowing again, that businesses are going to start seeing opportunities for investment, they're going to start hiring again, people are going to be put back to work."

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Comparing the ups and downs and the trustworthiness of the stock market to a tracking poll in politics, Obama suggested that Americans should step up buying.

"What I'm looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market, but the long-term ability for the United States and the entire world economy to regain its footing," Obama said.

"What you're now seeing is profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you've got a long-term perspective on it," he said.

In a series of news conferences and hearings today, the administration continued to push the idea that its economic plans will not only work, they are already beginning to show results.

The president began his day at the Department of Transportation where he hailed the $28 billion from the stimulus that will be used to fund highway, road and bridge construction and repair.

That investment, he said, would create or save 150,000 jobs by the end of 2010 -- more than General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have lost in manufacturing in the last three years combined.

"Two weeks ago, I signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the most sweeping economic recovery plan in history. And already, its impact is being felt across this nation," the president said, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.