"Second Stimulus" Backpedal Complete

by: Colorado Pols

Fri Mar 13, 2009 at 10:42:12 AM MDT

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a second U.S. economic stimulus plan isn't "in the cards" for now and that she would first like to see the $787-billion package signed into law by President Barack Obama "play out."

"I really would like to focus on the first one," Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters yesterday at her weekly news conference in Washington. [Pols emphasis]

Earlier this week, Pelosi said she was keeping the "door open" to another massive spending bill to jump-start the economy.

House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey said Wednesday that "prudence would dictate" that his committee "begin to prepare possible options" for a second stimulus plan...

"It's just not something right now that is in the cards," she said. She added that a highway funding bill that Congress will consider later this year is one of several measures that may boost the economy. She said she also is confident the just-passed stimulus will work.

The Obama administration, as you can imagine, was none too pleased by this little foray off the reservation:

[White House economic adviser Christina] Romer, a well-known expert on the Great Depression, also said it was too early to tell if another government stimulus package was needed to give a needed jolt to the economy.  "We absolutely need to let this one work," she said.

Which means, first and foremost, not giving Republicans a mile-wide opening to assert it's not working even though there's no way to know that yet--which is exactly what Pelosi and Obey did. Needless to say, we stand by everything we said about this yesterday: and for the sake of swing district Democrats (like ours in Colorado), who need to keep this issue framed properly against a determined GOP whose single-minded goal is to undermine the stimulus with the public, we sincerely hope Pelosi and Obey think through their future public statements.