Dems to meet with economists on Monday

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders will hold a meeting Monday with a group of economists, as part of a continuing effort to pressure Republicans and President Bush to support an economic stimulus package.

{mosads}“Just as the President and Congress worked together in recent weeks on an economic rescue plan to help bring stability to our financial markets, we must now take additional action and pass a jobs creation and economic recovery stimulus plan,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

In Denver Wednesday, Pelosi suggested that the new stimulus package should be $150 billion. That’s more than double the size of the $61 billion stimulus bill that the House passed before recessing for the fall campaign season. President Bush had promised to veto the measure, but it failed to clear the Senate.

Pelosi’s new figure is roughly the same amount as the $152 billion stimulus signed into law in February, which included tax rebates.

Pelosi’s announcement came out shortly before the markets closed with a 679-point, 7 percent, drop in the Dow Jones industrial average, falling below 9,000 for the first time since 2003.

Pelosi’s announcement said the meeting with economists, to be held in the speaker’s Capitol office, will look at a stimulus to create jobs with infrastructure, extend unemployment benefits, expand food stamp benefits and “prevent cuts to vital government services such as health, education, and public safety.”