President Barack Obama Stimulus

President Barack Obama pushed back against Republican critics of the economic stimulus legislation making its way through Congress on Wednesday at the same time he reached across party lines to consider changes in the bill. "Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the essential," Obama said as Senate Republicans stepped up their criticism of the bill's spending and pressed for additional tax cuts and relief for homeowners. He warned that failure to act quickly "will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession."