UPDATE: President-elect Obama urged swift passage by Congress of a massive two-year spending and tax-cutting recovery program which significantly exceeds the plan he discussed during the campaign.
The Associated Press reports:
Though Obama aides declined to discuss a total cost, it probably would far exceed the $175 billion he proposed during the campaign, but would not immediately seek to raise taxes on the rich. Some economists and lawmakers have argued for a two-year plan as large as $700 billion, equal to the Wall Street bailout Congress approved last month...
The scope of the recovery package is far more ambitious than what Obama had spelled out during his presidential campaign, when he proposed $175 billion of spending and tax-cutting stimulus. The new one will be significantly larger and would incorporate his campaign ideas for new jobs in environmentally friendly technologies -- the "green economy." It also would include his proposals for tax relief for middle- and lower-income workers.
Senior Democrats hinted today that Congress could get behind a massive stimulus plan worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
In a recorded interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" that was aired on Sunday, Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the package should be aimed at creating jobs immediately and include investments for future growth. Pelosi said several economists have called for a package in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
When asked if that would be the case for the stimulus package lawmakers are contemplating, Pelosi said: "It could be, if it also contained 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."
In an interview with ABC's This Week, Schumer said, "I believe we need a pretty big package here," Schumer said, adding that Congress is working on getting the economic package to president elect Barack Obama by inauguration day. "I think it has to be deep. In my view, it has to be between $500 and $700 billion dollars and that's because our economy is in serious, serious trouble."
"It's a little like having a new New Deal, but you have to do it before the Depression. Not after," Schumer added.