Barack Obama urged congressional leaders on Monday to act quickly to pass a huge stimulus package for the U.S. economy. He met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Later he met individually with Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and spoke to a bipartisan leadership gathering. In comments to reporters early on Monday, he underscored the urgency of finalizing economic legislation. “We have got an extraordinary economic challenge ahead of us,” he said. “We are expecting a sobering job report at the end of the week. Nancy Pelosi and her staff have been extraordinarily helpful in working with our team so that we can shape an economic recovery and reinvestment plan that starts putting people back to work.”
Mr. Obama wants tax cuts for individual Americans and businesses to make up a significant portion of expected legislation. This could involve as much as $300 billion of a bill that is likely to exceed $700 billion and include aid to cash-poor U.S. states, and money for alternative energy and a range of infrastructure projects. Later, Mr. Obama said he expects to be able to sign legislation as soon as the end of this month, adding that quick action is necessary to “break the momentum of the U.S. recession”.
Emerging later from bipartisan talks with Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers discussed with the president-elect how to pass a stimulus package as quickly as possible. “An economic recovery package that will create jobs immediately and will grow the economy and that is what we talked about today,” said Nancy Pelosi. “How we could do this fast, deliberatively and to act upon it soon.” Just how soon that would be, Pelosi would not say.
How much support Democrats can obtain from Republicans will depend on the details. But the severity of the U.S. recession has created considerable bipartisan backing for quick action. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid said, “There are investments that we need to make on behalf of the American people to turn around this economy. We felt very good about the meeting; we are confident that we can do this and we have to do this.”
“I think the best thing I can do is to decline to comment on what they are going to do going forward,” said Dana Perino. “Obviously, we think that tax cuts were the right way to help our economy get out of the recession that this president inherited and we know that tax cuts can spur innovation.” Asked by reporters how large the economic stimulus package might be, Senate Majority Leader Reid said President-elect Obama indicated that all but one of some 28 economists advising him had said it should range from $800 billion to $1.3 trillion.
1. Barack Obama urged congressional leaders and met with bipartisan leaders for ______.
2. The bill of economic legislation will be signed to help the following except ______.
3. If the stimulus package is passed quickly and successfully, it can ______.
4. What is the bipartisan leaders’ attitude towards this meeting?
5. According to the passage, the best way out of the economic recession is ______.
