Transcript of CNBC’s Barack Obama interview

Harwood: Tomorrow you're going to give a speech and talk about your economic stimulus package.

Obama: Right.

Harwood: It looks like it's going to be at the high end of your range, around $775 billion.

Obama: That's correct.

Harwood: If it's correct that, as your aides have said, the danger is doing too little rather than doing too much ...

Obama: Right.

Harwood:  ... why stop at $775 billion? Why not go to the $1.2 trillion that some economists have recommended? Is that because you think that the political figure of a trillion dollars is too politically charged to get over? Is it because you think more spending would be pork rather than stimulus? Or do you think you've figured out exactly the right amount of stimulus that's needed?

Obama: Well, first of all I think it's important to note that every economist, conservative or liberal, at this point agrees that we have to have a substantial recovery plan that helps to jump-start the economy, that short-term it's going to be expensive, but it would be much more expensive to see the economy continue in the tailspin that it's been going in. We've seen ranges from $800 to $1.3 trillion and our attitude was that given the legislative process, if we start towards the low end of that, we'll see how it develops. We are concerned ...

Harwood: It's going to get bigger.

Obama: Well, we don't know yet. But what we are concerned about is making sure that the money is spent wisely, that there's oversight, that there's transparency. We are going to use this money to temporarily boost the economy, to create or save three million jobs, but also to put some down payments on things that we should've been doing over the last several decades that can help create a more competitive U.S. economy. Examples: making sure that we are doubling alternative energy, and creating much more efficiency in our buildings and in our transportation systems, making sure that we are reducing the cost of health care using health information technologies, building up world class schools so that our children are benefiting and can compete in the global economy. So what we want to do is make sure that any money we're spending is, number one, creating jobs, stabilizing the economy, but also is being used prudently so that when we come out of the current stretch that we're in, we're going to see a stronger economy, a better economy, a more efficient economy.

Harwood: A lot of parallels have been offered between yourself and John F. Kennedy, who also made history, came in with a young, attractive family, had a lot of big Harvard brains around him as he began his administration.

Obama: Right.

Harwood: We learned during the 1960s that the best and the brightest don't always have it figured out right.

Obama: You've got to watch out for those Harvard guys. They'll get you every time.

Harwood: How confident are you that your plan is going to work, and how do you avoid the dangers of being too cocky?

Obama: Well, I think that the approach that we've taken is not just to talk to the usual suspects, but talk to people that traditionally don't agree with me. And when you've got Ronald Reagan's former economic advisers or John McCain's former economic advisers or George Bush's former economic advisers giving you similar advice to what advisers to Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter are giving you, then you have a sense that, across the political spectrum, there's some consensus.

Now, it's not going to happen overnight. This is a tough situation and you know, no matter what we do on reinvestment and recovery, we're still going to have to do some other things to make sure the economy is in much better shape. One of the central things that we're going to have to do is reform how our financial systems work. We've got to get credit flowing again. That means restoring trust, restoring openness in the system. It means that our regulatory frameworks have to be fundamentally reformed, and that's going to be a major package that I unveil over the next several weeks and months. It means that we've got to deal much more seriously with the housing crisis that's taking place and stabilize that. It means that we're going to have to think about how we are approaching fiscal responsibility. And that's why today I announced a chief performance officer that will follow through on my commitment in the campaign to go through the federal budget line by line, page by page and determine which programs are working and what programs aren't, and eliminate programs that aren't working and make the programs that we have work better.

So this is going to be a multipronged attack against the enormous slump that we're seeing right now. And the long-term goal is making sure that we're saving and protecting jobs, that businesses and American families are able to benefit from the flow of credit again. I'm not out to increase the size of the government long-term. My preference would be that the private sector was doing this all on their own. But I think the consensus across the board from people, even who didn't vote on it is that we have to take some bold steps now to make sure that we prevent the worst from occurring.

Harwood: Any concern about overconfidence?

Obama: No, I am enormously humbled by the challenges ahead of us. What I do have confidence about is that I'm a good listener, I'm good at synthesizing advice from a range of different perspectives, and that we will make the best possible decisions from the perspective of what's good for ordinary Americans.

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