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WASHINGTON - US president-elect Barack Obama is expected Monday to hammer out with congressional leaders final details for a massive stimulus package designed to revive the country's reeling economy.
The "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" is expected to cost between 750 billion and one trillion dollars, and Obama has said it would be aimed to "create or save" three million jobs by 2011.
Democratic lawmakers are optimistic the package will be approved in Congress by early February, just weeks after Obama moves into the White House on January 20. But top Republicans have called for more time and public hearings before voting on the bill.
The tentative spending proposals include:
-- Massive infrastructure and public works projects, with money for roads, mass transit, bridges and schools, projects that Obama has called "shovel ready."
-- A portion of a middle class tax cut that will become part of a permanent tax cut in the upcoming budget: immediate tax relief of some 500 dollars for individuals and 1,000 dollars for couples.
-- Doubling production of renewable energy through spending and tax incentives.
-- Developing a national energy grid for harnessing and distributing power derived from water, wind and other alternative energy sources.
-- Cash for states facing revenue shortfalls.
-- Improving health care technology to bolster productivity and reduce bureaucratic costs.
-- Extending part-time workers' unemployment compensation -- a proposal Republican lawmakers have blocked in the past.
-- Subsidizing employer expenses to temporarily continue health insurance coverage for laid-off and retired workers and their dependents.
The plan may also enable workers laid-off from jobs without insurance benefits to become eligible for Medicaid coverage.
- AFP /ls
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