(VIDEO) Barack Obama on Meet The Press

President-elect Barack Obama on Meet The Press

December 7 2008

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CHICAGO - The economic recession will get significantly worse before it starts to improve, President-elect Barack Obama said, seeking in an interview broadcast Sunday to tamp down expectations as he prepares to assume the presidency in 44 days.

“If you look at the unemployment numbers … the fragility of the financial system and the fact that it’s an international system,” the recession “is a big problem, and it’s going to get worse,” Obama told NBC News’ Tom Brokaw on Saturday. The interview aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Acknowledging that his agenda had changed sharply just in the month since he was elected, Obama said passing a short-term economic stimulus package was now his top priority.