By Liu Hong, Hu Fang
US President Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday that his nation would emerge stronger from the current economic crisis, a rare move aimed to comfort the recession-weary American people.
In his first address to a joint session of Congress, Obama said the weight of the current crisis "will not determine the destiny of this nation."
"While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover," he stressed.
"And the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," the president insisted.
More optimistic tone
The speech came a week after Obama signed a stimulus bill of 787 billion dollars and two days before Congress receives a summary of his 2010 budget.
The address touched lightly on foreign policy, so Obama could focus largely on the nation's economic and fiscal crisis, according to the White House officials.
Obama called on Americans to "pull together" and "take responsibility for our future."
"Now is the time to jump-start job creation, restart lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down," he said. "That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that's what I'd like to talk to you about tonight."
Obama struck a more optimistic tone than he has in recent days by laying out a "game plan" to beat the financial crisis.
Wall Street plunged Monday with the Dow Jones average and the S&P 500 index dropping to a 12-year-low on concerns about dim economic outlook.
But the market rallied Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled that nationalization of major banks was not at hand.
Unlike the more formal State of Union speeches delivered later in a presidency, Obama did not go into great details on questions such as whether major banks will be nationalized.
He assured the Americans that the country could work through the current crisis, the most severe one since the Great Depression in 1930s.