Washington: With the US in the middle of the worst-ever economic crisis after great depression of the last century, President Barack Obama today favoured bold and swift action to revive the economy.
"For everywhere we look, there is work to be done," Obama said in his inaugural address being listened by people world over and by more than a million people at the US Capitol.
"The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act -- not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth," 47-year-old Obama promised.
Obama has proposed a mega stimulus package to revive the US economy. The plan proposes to create three to four million jobs in the US.
"We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.
We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost," Obama said.
"We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do," Obama said reiterating the promise he has been making after the November 4 presidential election.
"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.
They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America -- they will be met," Obama said. The US President said there are some who question the scale of his ambitions -- who suggest that the system cannot tolerate too many big plans. "Their memories are short," he argued.
"For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage," he said.
"What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them -- that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply," he said.
"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified," Obama said.
"Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward.
Where the answer is no, programmes will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day -- because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government," Obama said.
Nor is the question whether the market is a force for good or ill, the President said in his inaugural speech.
"Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control -- and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous," he said.
"The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good," Obama said.
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