Raw Story
Dec. 15, 2008
Obama may give* taxpayers $1 trillion infusion over two years.
President-elect Obama’s transition team may double the size of a planned economic stimulus package in an effort to prevent soaring unemployment.
“Obama aides and advisers have set $600 billion over two years as ‘a very low-end estimate,’ one person familiar with the matter said,” according to a report in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. “The final number is expected to be significantly higher, possibly between $700 billion and $1 trillion over two years.”
“People familiar with the discussion say Lawrence Lindsey, President George W. Bush’s first NEC director, has counseled $800 billion to $1 trillion in stimulus over two years,” said the Journal. “Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein, a Reagan White House economic adviser, has raised his initial, one-year, $300 billion figure to at least $400 billion.”
The report was denied by Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter, who insisted, “Any speculation on size or scope is premature at this time.”
“We won’t do it the old Washington way,” Obama said about his stimulus plan, during his Dec. 6 YouTube address. “We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve — by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.”
President-elect Obama promised the first portion of the stimulus will go toward providing a tax cut for middle and lower-income Americans. The second, and largest, round of stimulus will be applied toward the largest public works project in a generation.
Obama said he aims to stimulate the economy by creating jobs improving national infrastructure, modernizing federal and school buildings, expanding broadband Internet capacity and reinventing the nation’s energy grid.
The jobless rate, based on a separate survey of households, rose last month to 6.7 percent, the highest since October 1993 but slightly better than the consensus estimate of economists of 6.8 percent. That survey showed 2.7 million people have joined the jobless ranks since the recession began.
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