Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/obama-addresses-nation-amid-more-grim-economic-news Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript President Barack Obama addresses Congress and the nation Tuesday amid new testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the scope of the recession. Kwame Holman reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: President Obama addresses Congress and the nation tonight. He planned to focus heavily on the economy, as the head of the Federal Reserve assessed the prospects for recovery.NewsHour correspondent Kwame Holman has our lead story report. KWAME HOLMAN: The president's address tonight to a joint session of Congress is not officially a State of the Union, but it will be his best chance yet to reassure the country.White House press secretary Robert Gibbs offered a preview on the morning TV talk shows.ROBERT GIBBS, White House press secretary: I think what you'll hear from the president tonight is a sober assessment about where we are and the challenges that we face. But listen to the end, and I think you'll hear the president tell Americans that this country has met many big challenges before and he believes that we're on the right path to meeting those challenges and that better days are ahead for this country. KWAME HOLMAN: Later, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, said no one is sure just how far off those "better days" are. He told a Senate hearing it depends on efforts to rescue the financial system and to stimulate the broader economy.BEN BERNANKE, Federal Reserve chairman: If actions taken by the administration, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve are successful in restoring some measure of financial stability — and only if that is the case, in my view — there is a reasonable prospect that the current recession will end in 2009 and that 2010 will be a year of recovery.