Obama's Jobs Plan

With Friday's hideous job numbers out signaling truly bad times ahead, Saturday was certainly the right time for Obama to announce his job creation plan.

President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday revealed five parts of his plan to save or create 2.5 million jobs by 2011, and said he will push for immediate action by Congress when he takes office in January.

Obama wants to make public buildings more energy-efficient; repair roads and bridges; modernize schools; increase broadband access; and ensure health care uses the latest technology.

"Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world," he said in the weekly Democratic Radio Address.

"We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won't just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work."

In addition, he said, "It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online."

"In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the Internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the Internet."

"These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately.

"We won't do it the old Washington way. We won't just throw money at the problem.

"We'll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve -- by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world," Obama added.

Indeed, the size and scope of Obama's national stimulus pacakage is growing by the day. And with state after state calling for long-needed Federal infrastructure investment and consumer consumption drying up quickly, it can't come soon enough.

I'm hoping this means that Republicans will be overwhelmed by the popularity of this and will have no choice but to concede, after all, politicians who vote against job creation for actual voters tend to get removed from office by those voters.

We'll see.