Report: Obama plan could reach $850B

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan could reach $850 billion, which some analysts say is needed to jolt the economy.

Members of Obama's transition economic team and congressional leaders are discussing the package that could mushroom to $850 billion in new spending and tax cuts over the next two years, eclipsing the $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial system, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Obama economic adviser Jason Furman and congressional liaison Phil Schiliro met Thursday with congressional staff in Washington to review the plan Obama expects to present to lawmakers. Obama's package is thought to be between $670 billion and $770 billion, sources told the Post, but he expects additions by Congress would raise the total to about $850 billion.

That amount is within recommendations from economists, the Post said. Some, such as Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, said the government should spend up to $1 trillion to spur the economy and fight unemployment.

Other economists, however, said they would prefer a smaller package that would provide more immediate relief and allow lawmakers and the White House to fashion a broader, longer term economic antidote.

"My personal opinion is you can spend $450 billion quite sensibly," Simon Johnson, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "But if you start raising it up, you have to ask whether you're getting good value for the money."