Axelrod: Obama wants big stimulus package

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will push for a more aggressive economic stimulus package than the one he proposed on the campaign trail, an aide said Sunday.

Incoming White House senior adviser David Axelrod, in an appearance on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that Obama wants a stimulus package larger than the $175 billion plan he called for previously.

"He wants a plan big enough to deal with the large challenges we face. And I think there's a growing consensus across the spectrum among economists that we're going to have to do something big," Axelrod said.

Appearing on the same program, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the Joint Economic Committee chairman, priced the stimulus package between $500 billion and $700 billion. But the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Schumer's number was too high.

"That's a lot of money," he said. "One thing, we'd better be careful about not just throwing money, borrowing a lot of money and throwing it at deal and creating no jobs to speak of."