While revealing the details of his all encompassing stimulus package that could reach the $1 trillion mark, Barack Obama warned Americans that things will get worse before they get better.

The newly elected President, in his most extensive interview since the election, spoke one day after announcing the largest public works construction program since the interstate highway system created about 50 years ago.

In his dire predictions, President-elect Obama was not just observing the realities of today's economy and but was also trying to get a bit of a political advantage in this financial crisis.

If the President-elect talks up the recession, he lowers the expectation of what he will be able to accomplish during the next year and can justify his stimulus package which will inject the largest amount of federal money into the economy since the New Deal in the Depression.

The economy is so bad that President-elect Obama and his economic team are convinced that nothing other than a very large stimulus package can work. The degree of the current recession and the fact that it continues to worsen has given Obama the opportunity to spend a lot of money in order to fund his expensive legislative agenda.

The current financial situation in American and the Democratic-controlled congress mean that Mr. Obama might start off as the most powerful president, in terms of freedom to pass legislation quickly, since Lyndon Johnson in 1963.

The plan, which Mr. Obama hopes will become law just after he takes office in January 20, is getting larger every day. He is organizing a nationwide road and bridge building plan, is planning to make public buildings more energy-efficient through replacing old heating systems and installing efficient lights, to renovate schools and install computers in every classroom, to extend high-speed internet all across the nation and to enable hospitals to access electronic medical records.

According to the president-elect, this will be the single largest investment in the nation's infrastructure since the highway program started in the 1950s. The plan is thought to include spending on electrical grids, public transport, dams and an investment in alternative fuels.