US President-elect Barack Obama's economic recovery plan will not only aim for meeting short-term needs, but also will lay the groundwork for long-term growth and prosperity, his top economic advisor said.
Obama's economic team is "crafting a broad proposal, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, to support the jobs and incomes essential for recovery while also making a down payment on our nation's long-term financial health," Lawrence Summers, who will lead White House National Economic Council in the Obama administration, wrote in an article published on Sunday's The Washington Post.
"Some argue that instead of attempting to both create jobs and invest in our long-run growth, we should focus exclusively on short-term policies that generate consumer spending," he said.
"But that approach led to some of the challenges we face today -- and it is that approach that we must reject if we are going to strengthen our middle class and our economy over the long run," wrote Summers.
He said a key pillar of the Obama plan is job creation and the president-elect has revised his goal upward to the creation of 3 million jobs.
Meanwhile, Summers said, the Obama plan will focus on investments "that will work for the American public," upgrading school facilities, reducing US dependence on foreign oil, creating new jobs to build infrastructure, and modernizing health-care system.
He also argued that despite the dire economic conditions, the Obama administration "also inherits an economy with great potential for the medium and long terms."
"Investments in an array of areas -- including energy, education, infrastructure and health care -- offer the potential of extraordinarily high social returns while allowing our country to address some long-standing national challenges and put our economy on a solid footing for years to come," said Summers.
Obama had said he will urge the Congress to pass a broad economic recovery plan soon after he takes office on Jan. 20, next year.
(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2008)
