Obama's Trillion Dollar Stimulus

Stimulus with a bullet (via the WSJ):

With the unemployment rate now expected to hit 9% without aggressive intervention, Obama aides and advisers have set $600 billion over two years as "a very low-end estimate," one person familiar with the matter said. The final number is expected to be significantly higher, possibly between $700 billion and $1 trillion over two years.

I have been predicting this for weeks/months. But how about this addendum:

Christina Romer, who will lead Mr. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, is also surveying economists, trying to build political consensus around a larger number before it is presented to Congress in early January. 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. 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.

Me: Yes, yes, many economists are for a big spending package. But I sense a growing number also in favor of tax cuts. If the goal is growth and not just using a crisis to push through a pre-existing economic agenda, then let's get cutting.

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