By AMIE PARNES

President Barack Obama, in a wide-ranging, reflective interview with Barbara Walters, staunchly defended his controversial policies — including sweeping health care reforms and the massive economic stimulus package — as bold but necessary steps to help transform an economy that was at the brink of collapse into one that is "growing."

"The notion that somehow you can only do one thing at once is simply not true," Obama told Walters in the interview, which aired on ABC Friday evening. "The fact is that we stabilized the financial system. ... We turned an economy that was contracting into one that was growing. We have added a million jobs over the last year to the economy."

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