'Pending stimulus package could cost $600 b'

Washington: US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday said a pending economic stimulus package could cost around $600 billion and include large infrastructure investments and tax cuts.

Speaking at an end-of-year press conference, Pelosi said Democrats were "hard at work" drafting a measure that likely would be debated next month and noted some economists were calling for around $400 billion in investments and other government aid coupled with $200 billion in tax cuts.

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Pelosi said she thought there would be "consensus" around that range of economic stimulus spending.

Lawmakers are now on an end-of-year break with the new Congress, which will have an expanded Democratic majority, to convene on Jan. 6. Democrats are hoping to have economic stimulus legislation ready for Barack Obama to sign into law when he becomes president on Jan. 20.

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"We have been communicating with the president-elect and his financial advisers to see where their comfort level is" on the size of a stimulus bill, Pelosi said.

Early this year, Congress and President George W. Bush enacted an economic stimulus law costing $168 billion over two years, mostly in the form of tax rebates and tax breaks for businesses.

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But with the US economy continuing in a downward spiral of mounting job losses and no growth, Pelosi has been calling for more and more emergency government spending to try to turn things around.

In September, the House passed a $61 billion stimulus bill that died in the Senate amid Republican opposition and a Bush veto threat. Since then, Pelosi has increased the size of the likely stimulus 10-fold.

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During her press conference on Monday she said some of the money she hopes to approve would be for "short-term" uses, while other parts would be used longer-term.

Two-year period as some have speculated.

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While noting that "some people want more" than $600 billion, Pelosi said, "I have to balance it in terms of what will grow the economy and create jobs."

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Obama has called for an aggressive economic stimulus measure that would include middle-class tax cuts.