President Barack Obama warned Thursday that the nation is facing a recession so deep that, without action, it could turn into one that "we may not be able to reverse." The threat of an irreversible recession that could "linger for years" is very real, Obama said, urging Congress to pass his economic recovery act.
"By now, it's clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression," Obama wrote.
"What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis," he added.
He painted a bleak picture of the future of the economy without stimulus, predicting an additional 5 million jobs lost, and unemployment approaching 10 percent.
It is that dire outcome which has sparked Obama's sense of urgency about the $819 billion economic recovery plan before Congress.
"This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education," Obama wrote. "And it's a strategy that will be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability, so Americans know where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent."
He challenged opposition to the fiscal stimulus, reminding Republicans who won the election in a not so subtle reference to his overwhelming victory.
"In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive," Obama wrote.
"I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change," he added.
The economy was also in Obama's mind when he spoke at the national prayer breakfast Thursday. Joined by his wife, Michelle, Vice President Joe Biden, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair Obama discussed the roots of the prayer breakfast, tracing it back to Seattle during the Great Depression.
"It's a tradition that I'm told actually began many years ago in the city of Seattle," the president said. "It was the height of the Great Depression, and most people found themselves out of work."
Faced with difficult times, community leaders decided to pray at breakfast. The breakfasts caught on, eventually working their way across the country to Washington, D.C. Obama said.
"And today, as I see presidents and dignitaries here from every corner of the globe, it strikes me that this is one of the rare occasions that still brings much of the world together in a moment of peace and goodwill," Obama noted.
Obama announced a new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which will offer assistance to community organizations of both the secular and non-secular variety.
"The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another - or even religious groups over secular groups," Obama said. "It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state."
The work with community leaders is "important," Obama said, because of the close level of communication between such organizations and their surrounding communities.
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May 22, 2026 14:46 ET Minutes of the latest Fed policy session was the highlight of the week along with survey data on the U.S. housing market. In Europe, survey data signaled the trends in the euro area private sector. Further, consumer price inflation data from the U.K. was in focus. In Asia, various economic indicators from China drew attention to the health of the economy.