we begin this year and this administration in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that calls for unprecedented action. >> one of the things president obama had to do right out of the gate was get the economy up and running. so the stimulus package became the golden bow of that. he had to get that through congress. >> it's a plan that will save or create 3 million to 4 million jobs over the next few years. >> we would lose 800,000 jobs in that month that we took office. with a one in three chance that we'd have a second great depression. the recovery act, if we didn't have a recovery act, we wouldn't have a recovery. it's as simple as that. >> i do hope that we can all put politics aside and do the american people's business. >> we had a path forward. we didn't know how uncooperative the republicans were going to be. coming up, the fight president obama faced in his first 100 days that would set