WASHINGTON AND ELKHART, IND. — In a sharp rebuke to Republicans who have sought to whittle down and redirect his stimulus plan, President Obama declared Monday that quick and massive government action is vital to repair "a gaping hole in our economy" that could lead to a long-term catastrophe.
"We've had a good debate. Now it's time to act," Obama said Monday night in his first full-scale news conference since entering the White House. Americans "need help right now," he said, "and they can't afford to keep on waiting for folks in Washington to get this done."
While reiterating his willingness to discuss compromises and changes in his stimulus plan, he bluntly rejected traditional Republican economic strategies.
"What I won't do is return to the failed theories of the last eight years that got us into this fix in the first place, because those theories have been tested and they have failed."
The new, more aggressive language represented a marked shift in White House tactics only three weeks into Obama's presidency.
Tacitly acknowledging that he had little to show for hosting bipartisan talks, appealing for bipartisan compromise and even hosting a bipartisan White House cocktail party for members of Congress, Obama returned to tactics that worked for him in last year's campaign.
He appealed directly to the public for support against what he portrayed as partisan paralysis in Washington.
Earlier in the day at a town hall-style meeting with voters in recession-ravaged Elkhart, Ind., which recently lost hundreds of jobs in a local factory, Obama used tough language in condemning "posturing and bickering" in Congress.
"You didn't send us to Washington because you were hoping for more of the same," Obama said. "You sent us there with a mandate for change and the expectation that we would act quickly and boldly to carry it out."
Even as he went on the attack, however, Obama returned to the modulated tones that have been a hallmark of his style.
Discussing the need to get beyond partisan polarization in the capital, Obama sounded less like a political gladiator fighting for his first big initiative than a schoolteacher trying to calm overwrought children.
"Whether we're Democrats or Republicans, surely there's got to be some capacity for us to work together -- not agree on everything, but at least set aside small differences to get things done," he said at the news conference.
