Obama says domestic plans may have to be ‘phased in’

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on Tuesday acknowledged that the nation’s financial crisis may force him to "phase in" some of the programs he has vowed on the campaign trail to put in place.

As Congress debates a $700 billion bailout plan that would add to the federal debt, the Illinois senator indicated in an interview on NBC’s “Today Show” that some programs may not be put in place right away. 

{mosads}“Does that mean that I can do everything that I've called for in this campaign right away? Probably not,” Obama stated. “I think we’re going to have to phase it in. And a lot of it’s going to depend on what our tax revenues look like.”

However, he noted that the $700 billion price tag does not mean that this sum of money would have to be paid right away.

“Although we are potentially providing $700 billion in available money to the Treasury, we don't anticipate that all that money gets spent right away and we don't anticipate that all that money is lost,” he said.

Obama also laid out some core principles regarding the bailout.

“The bottom line is, you can't give one person authority over $700 billion without any oversight whatsoever. So I think that's going to be important,” he said. He added that taxpayers must be protected and the measure “can’t be simply a bailout for investors, CEOs, shareholders."

“They've got to take a hit for the bad decisions that they make,” Obama argued.