A popular policy

Compared to the uncomfortable seesaw battle in the Republican-minority Congress while debating on Bush's financial rescue plan last year, Obama's stimulus plan is more likely to enjoy an easy pass at the Congress.

As the financial crisis has spread to the real economy, a deteriorating situation is foreseeable. The congressmen and the public have realized the necessity and urgency of taking immediate and effective measures to tackle the crisis.

After several government actions including lowering interest rates and injecting fund to financial institutions failed to achieve desirable results, various parties have focused their hopeful eyes on Obama's plan to save the economy.

The joint control of Democrats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives may also help the let-go of Obama's plan. It was reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised to urge the Congress to enact Obama's stimulus before his inauguration on Jan.20.

It is widely expected that the stimulus package would help curb the recession and speed up the US economic recovery.

However, congressmen from both parties have expressed profound alarm at the jaw-dropping US$1.2 trillion of budget deficit this fiscal year even before any new stimulus.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad even warned that this amount of deficit may not just appear in 2009 fiscal year, but possibly in every year in the next 10 years.

"Yes, our economy needs help, but at the end of the day how much debt are we going to pile on future generations?" House Republican leader John Boehner asked. "We cannot buy prosperity with more and more government spending."

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2009)