By Toby Harnden in Washington Last Updated: 11:19PM GMT 06 Feb 2009  Mr Obama said the bill was 'absolutely necessary', though he acknowledged there could be some modifications Photo: AP  He abandoned the emollient tone of bipartisanship that failed to secure a single Republican vote in the House of Representatives last week.  Instead, Mr Obama warned that if senators failed to pass the 736-page bill "an economy that is already in crisis will be faced with catastrophe".  He made the comments in a bid to buoy Democrats on Capitol Hill and shame a handful of Republican moderates into backing the measures.  While US media reports said that the two sides were edging towards a "tentative compromise", Democratic leaders in the Senate had planned a vote much earlier.  Mr Obama said the bill was "absolutely necessary", though he acknowledged there could be some modifications. "Broadly speaking, it is the right size. It is the right scope. ... It will take months, even years, to renew our economy. But every day that Washington fails to act, that recovery is delayed."  The bill had ballooned to a staggering $937 billion (£638 billion) in the Senate after a $819 billion (£557 billion) version passed in the House.  A group of nearly 20 Democratic and Republican moderates was working to strip some $100 billion for the bill to produce a compromise measure that would allow Democrats, who have 58 senators, to pass the bill with enough Republican support to take it past the 60 votes required to overcome a procedural roadblock.  The president's new, sharply combative tone of urgency came at the end of a miserable week for Mr Obama, when he lost key ally Tom Daschle as nominee for Health Secretary after a scandal over unpaid taxes, and as new unemployment figures indicated a deepening recession.  US Labour department figures showed that American employers cut 598,000 jobs in January, the biggest employment increase since 1974. The national unemployment rate leapt to 7.6 per cent.  "I found this deficit when I showed up," Obama said, dispensing with his Teleprompter to earn a standing ovation with his off-the-cuff rhetoric at a Democratic retreat in Wlliamsburg, Virginia. "I found this national debt doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me when I stepped into the Oval Office." The polices of his predecessor President George W. Bush had left an "economy in a tailspin".  He argued that using tax cuts alone as a way to stimulate the economy was "a losing formula". He defended the swiftness with which the bill was moving through Congress and mocked those who called the measure simply a spending bill: "What do you think a stimulus? That's the whole point!" Republicans hit back fiercely. Mitch McConnell, Republican leader in the Senate, described the bill as a "Trojan horse for pet projects and expanded government" and an "aimless spending spree that masquerades as a stimulus".  Senator Lindsay Graham lambasted Mr Obama as weak and ineffective. "This process stinks," he told Fox News.  "We're making this up as we go and it is a waste of money. It is a broken process, and the president, as far as I'm concerned, has been Awol on providing leadership on something as important as this."  The White House said the new unemployment figures bolstered Mr Obama's case. "These numbers, and the very real suffering of American workers they represent, reinforce the need for bold fiscal action," said Christina Romer, head of Mr Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.  "If we fail to act, we are likely to lose millions more jobs and the unemployment rate could reach double digits."  Mr Obama said: ""These numbers demand action. It is inexcusable and irresponsible to get bogged down in distraction and delay while millions of Americans are being put out of work. It is time for Congress to act."
President Barack Obama has attacked Republicans for an "inexcusable and    irresponsible" delay in passing his economic stimulus bill.