Goolsbee Refuses to Say How Many Jobs Obama's New Stimulus Will Create

(ABCNEWS.com)

President Barack Obama spent last week rolling out new plans to help America's struggling economy -- $50 billion in infrastructure spending and about $200 billion in tax cuts for companies' investments in research and development. But just how many jobs will these pricey proposals create?

Christiane Amanpour asked Austan Goolsbee, the newly-appointed chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

"It obviously depends on how you do it," he said. "It could have a significant impact on trying to get investment in factories…by small businesses in buying equipment, research and development and job creation in this country," Goolsbee said on "This Week."

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"Do you have sort of a target number?" Amanpour pressed.

"I do not want to speculate on that," Goolsbee replied. "The point of those policies, they aren't spending – they're the government giving tax cuts to businesses to invest in this country, that's what they are."

Goolsbee: Long Road to Less Joblessness

Unemployment in the United States is "going to stay high," Goolsbee told Amanpour this morning.

"This recession is the deepest in our lifetimes, the deepest since 1929," Goolsbee said. "More than eight million people lost their jobs. It's going to take a significant push on our part -- and time -- before that comes down," he said. "I don't anticipate it coming down right away."