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President Obama made an urgent plea to congress Monday, pressing lawmakers to approve his plan to reignite the stalled economy.

"This is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill recession. We are going through the worst economic downturn since the Great Recession.

His first prime time news conference as president came hours after the U.S. Senate narrowly cleared the path for his $838 billion stimulus package, which is scheduled to come up for a vote on Tuesday.

"At this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the only resources left to jolt the economy back into life," said Obama.

The president began his sell in earnest Monday morning, when he traveled to Eckhart, Indiana, a town with a 15 percent unemployment rate. He said his plan would create or save four million jobs, with nearly all of them in the private sector.

Since taking office, Obama has tried reaching out to Republicans, but so far his efforts have failed. He said this is only the start of the process, but shot back at Republican criticism that the plan is full of wasteful spending.

"When I hear that from people who presided over the national debt, then I just want them to not engage in some revisionist history. I inherited the deficit and the economic crisis," said Obama.

That crisis, Obama warned, will last well through this year. His hope is that things will begin to improve next year.

"If we get things right, then next year we can start seeing some significant improvement," said Obama.