President-elect Barack Obama has revealed plans to pursue a massive economic stimulus program by creating 2.5 million jobs and spending as much as $700 billion to improve the nation’s infrastructure. Obama unveiled the plan on Saturday during the weekly Democratic radio address.

President-elect Barack Obama: “I have already directed my economic team to come up with an economic recovery plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011, a plan big enough to meet the challenges we face that I intend to sign soon after taking office. We’ll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year nationwide effort to jump-start job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead. These aren’t just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis. These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long.”