Obama asks Americans to be patient about his economic policies

Washington, Mar. 25 (ANI): President Barack Obama has asked Americans to be patient while his administration tries to deal with the recession by bailing out the financial institutions despite the fact that they are being widely criticized for creating the economic crisis.

Obama said he already sees "signs of progress" in the economy and promised a recovery from recession.

In his second prime-time news conference, he said his government attempted to blunt the finger pointing at Washington for paying 165 million dollars in bonuses to executives at American International Group at a time when the insurance giant was being bailed out by the government.

"The rest of us can't afford to demonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit. When each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other-that's when we succeed," the Washington Post quoted Obama, as saying from the East Room of the White House.

Obama, refused to answer any question regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, or terrorism. Instead, the president focused consistently on his administration's efforts to revive the economy.

Obama's appearance came on a day when his administrators were grilled by the lawmakers for hours about their knowledge of the AIG bonus payments.

Asked why he waited several days to publicly express his frustrations after finding out about the AIG bonuses, Obama said: It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak."

He called on the public to "look toward the future with a renewed sense of common purpose, a renewed determination."

Obama also defended his efforts to seek broad new authority to oversee companies like AIG in the same way that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. can take control of struggling banks.

"It is precisely because of the lack of this authority that the AIG situation has gotten worse," he said.

Shortly before the president took to the lectern, Democrats in Congress were preparing to make sharp cuts to the budget plan for which he sought to rally support in his news conference. (ANI)