Priming the Pump: What Policymakers Should Consider in Deciding Whether or Not to Go Forward with a Stimulus Package

January 9, 2009, 10:00am - 11:30am

Confronting the growing economic crisis will be the first order of business for the new Congress and the incoming Obama administration. Should the incoming administration work to deliberately increase the size of a federal deficit already projected by the Congressional Budget Office to exceed $1.2 trillion for the current year? How big should a stimulus package be? How should it be structured?

These are the questions that a Center for American Progress panel on fiscal stimulus will grapple with at an upcoming event. Part of the discussion will involve what the Labor Department's December employment report (to be released an hour and a half before the beginning of the event) will tell us about the future course of the economy and the need for stimulus.