| | Democrats considering $700 billion in new stimulus measures
Thought the $750 billion Paulson bailout was steep?
The incoming Obama Administration, along with Congressional Democrats, is eyeing as much as another $700 billion in stimulus measures over the next two years, according to Monday's Washington Post.
"That amount," the Post notes, "more than the nation has spent over the past six years in Iraq, would rival the sum Congress committed last month to rescuing the country's financial system. It would also be one of the biggest public spending programs aimed at jolting the economy since President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal."
"Hints of a hefty new spending program began emerging last week," the Post added. Obama adviser and Democratic New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D), an Obama adviser, and former Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers, who is leading Obama's economic transition team, "both raised the possibility of $700 billion in new spending. Yesterday, Obama adviser and former Clinton administration Labor secretary Robert Reich and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) also called for spending in the range of $500 billion to $700 billion."
"Last week, Goldman Sachs said it expects the economy to shrink even faster by the end of the year, at a 5 percent annualized rate," the paper added. "Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 5.3 percent for the week; and the nation's largest bank, Citigroup, sought government assistance to avoid collapse."
The Post story is here.
Appearing on ABC's This Week, Sen. Chuck Schumer told George Stephanopoulos that if Congress considers an additional economic recovery package, it must be "pretty big" in order to be effective.
"It's a little like having a new New Deal, but you have to do it before the Depression. Not after," Schumer said.
Speaking to CBS News on Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi echoed Schumer's statements, calling for a broad stimulus that would be aimed at creating jobs and could contain a tax cut.
"Something of several hundred billion would have to be some investment into the future, plus creating jobs immediately, and a tax cut," she said.
Schumer added that the bill could be ready by the time President-elect Barack Obama takes office on January 20. Democratic sources added on Sunday night that the Obama transition team is working with lawmakers to have a stimulus bill passed by both houses of Congress and ready for the President-elect to sign on taking his seat in the Oval Office.
"Most economists say to make this work you need about 5 percent of GDP, which would be 700 billion dollars," Schumer said. "I think we need a large one.
Republican Sen. Richard Shelby appeared on the show with Schumer and said he would support his suggestion "if it would accelerate appreciation, things like that; tax incentives for people to hire, to retool and things like that."
But Shelby also said it was something he would have to see in detail before considering it, The Hill reported.
"Well, I would like to see the details of any stimulus package: what it would do, how it would work, who would benefit from it," said Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee. "What we need is to really get the economy going."
This video is from ABC's This Week, broadcast Nov. 23, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
Pelosi: Stimulus should contain overall tax cut
This video is from CBS's Face the Nation, broadcast Nov. 23, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
|
