Show the details and slow down.

That's the message from a growing chorus of critics to President- elect Barack Obama's calls for massive federal government spending to help the economy recover from its potentially worst recession since after World War II.

During a speech at George Mason University yesterday, Obama, only 12 days away from being inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, warned that the nation's jobless rate could exceed 10 percent and the economic downturn could last years unless Congress acts quickly to pump as much as $800 billion in borrowed funds into middle-class tax cuts and government spending programs.

Democrats immediately applauded Obama's call for action, which some have already nicknamed the "New New Deal."

Environmental groups also praised Obama's call for funds to be earmarked for green- and alternative-energy development to both create jobs and to ease the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

A number of economists, including some at Harvard, have endorsed Obama's ambitious plans.

But not all Harvard economists are on board.

"He's overstated the case," warned Jeffrey Miron, an economist and senior lecturer at Harvard. Calling himself a libertarian, Miron said that the spending is "classic Keynesian economics" that may not go toward productive, jobs-creating uses.

Others said Obama is repeating what Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson did this past fall when he asked for quick action on a proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout package, after giving Congress only a three-page description of his plan. Obama has yet to make public a detailed plan of his economic-stimulus package.

David Tuereck, executive director of Suffolk University's conservative Beacon Hill Institute, asserted Obama is engaging in the same type of "panic" tactics as Paulson did late last year.

Congressional Republicans, on the defensive since Obama beat GOP rival John McCain last November, began making louder protests yesterday about the size of Obama's economic plan.

Originally published by By JAY FITZGERALD.

(c) 2009 Boston Herald. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

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