Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/obama-calls-for-bold-and-swift-action-on-economy Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript President Barack Obama met Wednesday with business leaders and renewed his calls for Congress's quick action on passing a new economic stimulus plan. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: President Obama faced his first major test in Congress today. House Democrats moved on a sweeping stimulus package of spending and tax cuts, as the president lobbied the private sector for support. Judy Woodruff reports on the day's events. JUDY WOODRUFF: As the stimulus debate resumed in the House, some of the nation's best-known corporate executives left their boardrooms to meet in the president's, the Roosevelt Room of the White House. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I'm very grateful that all of these individuals have taken the time to come. These are some of the leading CEOs in the country. These are people who make things, who hire people. They are on the frontlines in seeing the enormous problems in our economy right now. JUDY WOODRUFF: Later, in the East Room of the White House, one of those CEOs, David Cote of Honeywell, highlighted a sense of urgency about the huge recovery plan.DAVID COTE, chairman and CEO, Honeywell: Mr. President, we appreciate your leadership, the vitality that you're bringing to these tough times that are needed, and I have to say thank God you are not a timid man. JUDY WOODRUFF: With a fresh announcement from Boeing that it is cutting another 5,500 jobs, Mr. Obama used the moment to press the House before its vote on the stimulus package, now calculated at $819 billion. U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The businesses that are shedding jobs to stay afloat, they can't afford inaction or delay. The workers who are returning home to tell their husbands and wives and children that they no longer have a job, and all those who live in fear that their job will be next on the cutting blocks, they need help now.They are looking to Washington for action, bold and swift. And that is why I hope to sign an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan into law in the next few weeks.I know that there are some who are skeptical of the size and scale of this recovery plan. And I understand that skepticism, given some of the things that have happened in this town in the past. And that's why this recovery plan will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my administration accountable.