House Democrats heard Tuesday from a group of economists who told them that the $787 billion in spending contained in the stimulus won't be enough to truly kickstart the economy and meet the Obama administration's goal of "creating or saving" 3.5 million jobs. Instead, according to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, said that only 2.5 million jobs will be created or saved within the next two years.
"I think policy-makers need to do more. I don't think we're done. I think we're going to need more efforts to shore up the job market, the financial system and the housing market. And to do that, let me see, I think we need to be extraordinarily bold. The big mistake here would not to be aggressive about this crisis," Zandi said.
So, based on advice from Zandi and others, some House Democrats are considering the idea of a second stimulus package, talk other Democrats -- including the Obama administration -- have said is premature.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at least, didn't rule the idea out. "We have to keep the door open to see how it goes,” Pelosi told reporters after the meeting. "We hope it will be sooner rather than later that [the stimulus] catches fire in Washington, D.C. But we aren’t waiting."
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