Report: First Stimulus Won’t Meet Obama Administration’s Job Goals

With murmurs becoming louder this week for the possible need for a second stimulus package, House Democrats were presented today with a report that may give them the cover they need to start setting expectations for a second stimulus. The report by a group of economists including Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, says the recently enacted $787 billion stimulus package will fall far short of the Obama administration’s goal of saving or creating 3.5-million jobs. Zandi said only 2.5 million jobs will be saved or created over the next two years, and told House Democrats that a second stimulus is needed as well as more money for banking stabilization and housing. "I am increasingly confident that by this time next year the economy will stabilize. Not that it will come roaring back by 2010 but that it will stabilize," Zandi said after his meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House Democrats Tuesday. "Now having said that, 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," he said. Pelosi said Tuesday she’s open to a second stimulus plan. “We have to keep the door open to see how it goes,” Pelosi told reporters Tuesday following a hearing on the economy. Democrats and the Obama administration have argued this week that it’s just too early to push for another stimulus, pointing out that only about $3-billion of the first one has gone out the door so far, with the pace expected to pick up in the next couple of weeks. "I think the president, obviously, and the economic team believe that the steps that we took in the recovery and reinvestment plan will have concrete impact on getting our economy moving again and putting people back to work," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said during his briefing with reporters Tuesday. "Our focus and the focus throughout this administration — and you’ve seen the president talk about this on a number of occasions — is doing all that we can to move the spending that’s been authorized by Congress and signed into law by the president to move that spending out to the states as quickly as possible or move those out to localities or — or — or construction projects and what he did at the Department of Transportation in order to do so not just quickly, but to do so in a way that’s transparent and that taxpayers are confident and assured that their money is being spent wisely," he said. "I think our focus is ensuring that that money gets out there as quickly as possible so that we can get our economy turned around again." But with the unemployment rate surging to 8.1 percent, and the economy losing 4.4-million jobs since December, 2007, Zandi and other are pushing to do "more." Stay tuned. — George Stephanopoulos