Reid vows Senate will quickly OK stimulus proposal

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday he is confident he will be able to shepherd the economic stimulus called for by President-elect Barack Obama through the Senate "fairly quickly."

Reid estimated the price tag of the ambitious proposal will be around $500 billion.

Speaking to reporters at a food bank in Las Vegas on Monday, Reid said, "I think that during his first month in office, we'll have a stimulus package."

Reid noted that the particulars of the proposal are not yet known as Obama outlined it in broad strokes.

"We don't have a plan," he said. "What we have is the nucleus of a group of people who have the ability to put forward a plan."

What we do know, he added, is that "this plan is going to be big, it's going to be robust, it's going to be one that I think will be supported by both Democrats and Republicans."

Reid, who took a call Monday morning from Obama's proposed treasury secretary, New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner, spoke of the incoming economic team in glowing terms.

"The people that are designated by Senator Obama to be part of the economic team are terrific," he said. "They're people who are supported by the academic community, by the political community, by the financial community, Democrats and Republicans. I think that's a step in the right direction."

Geithner called to ask him to move his nomination through the Senate "but also to talk about some of the challenges we face, and we have to face them together."

Reid said he and Geithner made a plan to meet in Washington next week. The two men discussed the fact "that there's no library you can go to and get a book on how to fix the problems we have."

The $700 billion figure that has been floating around for the stimulus proposal did not come from Obama's people, said Reid, who praised the transition team for proceeding with caution.

"The Obama team has not decided what they're going to do, but it will be robust," he said. "I think it will be about $500 billion."

The ideas should include infrastructure spending to create jobs and aid to state governments, he said.

"The state of Nevada is in bad shape, and that's an understatement," Reid said. "But so are a lot of other states."

Although Reid expects Republicans to be on board, he said Democrats probably will have the clout to pass a bill the GOP dislikes. His party picked up at least seven additional Senate seats on Election Day, for a 58-seat majority, with two contests still undecided.

"I think we'll get pretty good cooperation from the Republicans," he said. "We don't need the cooperation because of my large numbers in the Senate, but we're going to look for it. I think we have to try to do everything we can on a bipartisan basis no matter what our numbers wind up being."

Reid said that in the near term, he hopes Citigroup and the Big Three automakers can be rescued.

Reid said he talked to current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Sunday night. "There aren't many (banks) left that still haven't had a bailout," he said. "I hope that Citicorp is the last. It's an extremely difficult situation."

As for the automakers, Reid decided last week to send them back to the drawing board.

"I made a decision last Thursday, and I conferred thereafter with (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi), that what the Big Three had asked was not viable and there was no accountability," he said.

"We want to save our manufacturing base, and automobiles are part of the manufacturing base -- it's the biggest part," he said. "If these companies go out of business, it's two and a half million lost jobs.

"We want to keep them in business, but we can't with the management that has been going on. And I don't mean specific people, I mean the management plan. It's been nothing short of ridiculous. We have got to make sure that these companies understand that there's a modern world out there and they have to be a part of it."

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.