Obviously, this isn’t how I would handle it. I’d say to the American people, “Look, I’m done pretending that these evil Republican bastards and their greedy, short-sighted economic policies haven’t put us in this deep economic ditch. They want tax cuts to please their base, but they’re not getting them BECAUSE WE ALREADY KNOW THEY WON’T WORK.

“What will work is what I’ve proposed, and it’s up to you, the people, to call your congress critters and senators to tell them they either support our massive stimulus package, or you and your neighbors will be storming their homes and offices with pitchforks and torches. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of treating the ravings of these mendacious assholes as reality, and you should be, too.

“We didn’t do our job, any of us. If we had, we wouldn’t be in this mess. In the name of bipartisanship, we actually treated their destructive ideas as if they had value. Boy, were we wrong! Well, no more Mr. Nice Guy. Time to tell these Republican maroons to get the hell out of the way, or they can go back to the free market to find out what they’re really worth.

“Thank you, and may God bless the countless victims of this Republican greed.”

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — President-elect Barack Obama warned that without immediate steps by the government to revive the economy, family incomes will drop, the unemployment rate could reach “double digits” and the U.S. risks losing a “generation of potential and promise.”

In excerpts of a speech he’s scheduled to give today at 11 a.m. New York time in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, Obama says that while the cost of his economic recovery plan will add to a deficit already projected to exceed $1 trillion, he “won’t just throw money at our problems.”

“It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth,” Obama will say. “But at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe.”

Obama’s speech, which aides billed as a “major” economic address, is part of a broader pitch to Congress and the American public as he works on selling his $775 billion, two-year economic stimulus plan to pull the U.S. out of a recession. While the excerpts released by his transition office didn’t provide specifics of the plan, advisers said the full speech would expand on previously reported elements.