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Obama Ambitious In Stimulus Plans

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Los Angeles Times

Published: December 8, 2008

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama is crafting a financial stimulus plan far more ambitious than any quick infusion of cash for a struggling economy, viewing it instead as a vehicle to create jobs and push the nation in the direction of improved health care and roads, and clean energy.

On Sunday, saying the economy will get worse before it gets better, he pledged a recovery plan "equal to the task" and warned lawmakers that the days of pork barrel spending are over.

Less than six weeks before his inauguration, Obama declined to say how large an economic stimulus plan he envisions. He said his blueprint for recovery will include help for homeowners facing foreclosure on their mortgages if President George W. Bush has not acted by Inauguration Day.

In recent years, federal stimulus packages sometimes amounted to giving Americans checks, with a goal of stoking consumer spending. Obama's transition team wants to mold a package that tracks the policy ideas he laid out during his presidential campaign and puts people to work immediately.

Amid a worsening economic climate, Obama is thinking in expansive terms. Congressional leaders say a stimulus plan could cost $400 billion to $700 billion - figures the Obama team does not dispute. Those numbers dwarf anything that the House had been considering before Obama's victory Nov. 4.

Obama hopes to employ a stimulus program that helps drive the agenda of his presidency: improving the nation's power grid in ways that reduce carbon emissions and cut energy costs, shoring up roads, bridges and tunnels and computerizing medical records so that doctors have up-to-date information on patients.

HEALTH CARE

•Obama wants the stimulus program to include money to computerize medical records so doctors have more up-to-date information about patients. Such a reform could help improve health care delivery and cut costs.

•Also under consideration is a major expansion of the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program, which Bush vetoed in 2007. A boost in federal aid to cover more children would send billions of dollars out to states, which administer the program.

INFRASTRUCTURE

•Obama wants the stimulus to underwrite public works projects (road, bridge and tunnel improvements, for example) that could begin immediately. The idea would be to put people to work as soon as possible.

ENERGY

•The package might include funds for weatherizing homes. That means installing "smart meters" that would give homeowners an early and more accurate readout of their monthly power usage. Obama supports more energy-efficient roofs and improvements to the nation's power grid.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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