Obama names economic team while Democrats plan stimulus

President-elect Obama named four members to his economic team Monday as House and Senate Democrats said they hope to have a stimulus package for him to sign as soon as he is sworn in. Recent gloomy economic news "has made it even more clear that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions," Obama said at Monday's news conference.

Obama named Timothy Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve president, as Treasury secretary; Lawrence Summers, a Treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and former Harvard University president, as head of the National Economic Council; Christina Romer, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, and Melody Barnes, a former policy director at the Center for American Progress and counsel to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as director of the Domestic Policy Council.

The most recent evidence of the economy's weakness, Obama said, came Sunday when the federal government agreed to backstop more than $300 billion in Citigroup's bad debt and provide another $20 billion of capital on top of an earlier $25 billion infusion.

To counteract the economy's decline, Obama said he is working with Democratic leaders on a recovery plan that would create 2.5 million jobs through infrastructure spending; spending for green and renewable energy; and tax cuts for the middle class. Obama declined to provide an overall cost for the stimulus, saying details are being worked out, but he called on Congress to begin work on a stimulus in early January. "We cannot hesitate and we cannot delay," he said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Monday the stimulus is "at the top" of the Democrats' agenda, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., is already working on a draft bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Monday said Democrats "will continue pushing for aggressive but necessary measures," but he did not indicate a dollar range.

By contrast, Joint Economic Committee Chairman Charles Schumer of New York on Sunday suggested a range of $500 billion to $700 billion. Reid's office declined to comment beyond the statement, but a spokeswoman indicated that action would not occur until Congress returns in early January. Congress might come back for a second lame-duck session the week of Dec. 8 to consider an automaker rescue plan. Analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a research note Friday that a stimulus package should total about $600 billion, or 4 percent of gross domestic product.

A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday there are "very difficult questions" to answer, including where the money would come from, where it would go, how quickly it would be spent, and how it would affect the deficit, the value of the dollar and credit markets. Simply raising taxes on the upper class would not raise enough money, he added. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said that a stimulus package should be centered on tax cuts.

Darren Goode and Peter Cohn contributed to this report.