Washington, April 30 (Inditop) President Barack Obama has assured Americans that the US “will see a better day” as his administration clears the wreckage of the worst recession in decades and lays the foundation for a new stronger economy.
The United States “will see a better day,” Obama said at a prime time news conference Wednesday capping his 100th day in office. But there’s still a lot of work to do, he said.
His budget begins to lay a “new foundation” that will strengthen the US economy, said Obama just hours after both chambers of Congress passed his $3.4 trillion budget resolution for fiscal year 2010.
The measure approves most of Obama’s key spending priorities and sets the federal government in a new direction with major increases for energy, education and health care programs.
“But even as we clear away the wreckage of this recession, I’ve also said that we can’t go back to an economy that is built on a pile of sand – on inflated home prices and maxed-out credit cards; on overleveraged banks and outdated regulations that allowed the recklessness of a few to threaten the prosperity of all,” he said.
“I want to thank the American people for their support and their patience during these trying times, and I look forward to working with you in the next hundred days, in the hundred days after that, all of the hundreds of days to follow, to make sure that this country is what it can be.”
In a shift from his previous news conferences which were dominated by questions about the economy, Obama fielded multiple queries on the foreign policy front.
The president said a recent uptick in violence in Iraq won’t affect his plan for a phased military withdrawal.
On Pakistan, the president said the United States has “huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable” and doesn’t end up a “nuclear-armed militant state.”
Obama also said he is “very comfortable” with his decision to ban interrogation techniques like waterboarding, which he called torture.
Asked about the previous administration, he said, “I think that whatever legal rationale were used, it was a mistake.”
On immigration, Obama said he hoped lawmakers will begin working on legislation to reform the system and expected the process to be under way within the year.
