Bloomberg: Nice Sales Pitch on Economy, Obama. But Will It Be Enough?

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a pretty cautious reaction to Barack Obama's economic plan today.

Many are hoping the president-elect can work recession-busting miracles once he gets into office. Obama warned today that if Congress doesn't pump hundreds of billions into the economy, we could be headed for even more dire straits.

"In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse," he said.

But Bloomberg rightly said we have to do more than throw money at the problem. After all, when people are only ordering glasses of wine, instead of bottles, that's an economic nightma. And although many are heralding Obama's recovery plan for its heavy emphasis on infrastructure spending, that doesn't help all those out of work.

"A lot of the people getting laid off can't drive back hoes," the always-blunt Bloomberg told CNN just after Obama's peech. "It's not a panacea type of thing."

We also need to improve public education, job training, etc... We can't "just keep throwing money at the same things we've been doing."

That's essentially where Congress has to grow a pair (pardon my language) and start thinking outside the box.

Congress "likes spending money but they don't like to make the changes that are necessary," Bloomberg said.

And when they do make changes, they do it at dinosaur pace, something we absolutely cannot afford right now.

Building America's Future - the group co-chaired by Bloomberg, Pennsyvlania Gov. Ed Rendell, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - is soon to release its plan for getting the economy back on track. The coalition has been working to build support for the federal government to play a larger role in the funding of America's infrastructure.

"That's a good place to start," Bloomberg said.