Obama Team Is Seeking Stimulus Bill by New Year
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By JACKIE CALMES
Published: December 18, 2008
WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama’s advisers hope to finish an economic recovery blueprint by Dec. 25 so that Democratic Congressional staff members can draft legislation by the new year, as the two branches of government try to converge on a two-year plan by late January that could total just under $1 trillion.
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“The goal for completing action on this important legislation should be as close to Jan. 20 as possible,” said an e-mail message from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office to senior Senate Democratic staff members.
Some Obama advisers have sought to tamp down expectations that Mr. Obama could sign a package immediately after he is inaugurated. The opposition of some Senate Republicans and House and Senate negotiations on a final compromise could force delays into February.
Democrats familiar with the early deliberations say the preliminary price tag has grown to about $800 billion from the roughly $600 billion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had estimated in recent days.
Mark Zandi, a Republican economist who is advising the Democrats, said in an interview that the worsening economy could push his updated recommendation in January up to $1 trillion for a two-year government stimulus.
About a fifth of the Obama package could go toward health care, Democrats say. The biggest piece would be up to $100 billion to subsidize the states’ growing Medicaid caseloads of the poor. Mr. Obama also will call for a down payment on the $50 billion he proposed during his campaign to help medical providers buy information technology and save costs on health records.
Mr. Obama is considering roughly $200 billion in tax relief for low-wage and middle-class workers, including a payroll tax holiday to fatten paychecks and encourage Americans to spend more and spur economic activity, according to several people with knowledge of the options he is weighing.
The Obama plan has five main parts, according to Democrats in Congress and the Obama transition office. Besides the health care financing, it would propose billions of dollars for energy-saving programs, public works projects, school construction and renovation, and expanded jobless aid and food stamps for “the most vulnerable,” as well as tax cuts.
The scale and speed of the emerging package could exceed anything in recent memory, according to White House and Congressional veterans, in keeping with Mr. Obama’s admonition that the size of the stimulus must be proportionate to the economy’s ills.
The president-elect, in a four-hour meeting on Tuesday, made a number of decisions to guide his senior advisers while he is on a two-week vacation starting on Saturday; more than once he goaded them to think bigger and “bolder,” participants said.
The Obama plan could end up at about 15 pages, an adviser said, leaving precise legislative language and some details to Congress. The House and Senate will be working simultaneously to draft separate but similar measures.
Ms. Pelosi hopes to have the House finish in the second week of January. The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled votes to begin on Jan. 8; subsequent debate on the Senate floor could take more than a week.
The Senate leadership e-mail message on Thursday, which outlined the Obama team’s plans and set a Jan. 20 goal for completion, also sought to limit senators’ add-ons that could inflate the package and violate Mr. Obama’s vow against pork-barrel spending.
“Only those items that spend out quickly, create jobs and constitute sound national policy should be considered for inclusion in the package,” the message said.
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