CNBC’s Harwood: Chance of Dems Pushing Another Stimulus to Save Face for 2010 Election Cycle 'Quite Good'

Jeff Poor
November 27th, 2009 1:32 PM

Here we go again. We've already seen how ineffective the previous $787-billion stimulus Congress and the President forced through earlier this year has been with curbing unemployment, as it has raced into double-digits over the previous months. But will there be an effort to force through another one?

Earlier this week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made overtures of another stimulus in a conference call. CNBC's Erin Burnett noted the possibility of a push for a second stimulus on the network's Nov. 27 "The Call."

"John, what would you say, I don't know, the chances of some sort of an additional jobs stimulus - however you'd like to characterize that, or whatever form it would take or price tag it might have ?" Burnett asked.

CNBC Washington correspondent John Harwood called the prospects "quite good," as unemployment could reach 11 percent according to Moody's Economy.com's Mark Zandi.

"Erin, I think they have gotten quite good," Harwood said. "There is a lot of heat being felt by Democrats now that unemployment has cracked 10.2 percent. Mark Zandi tells me it will hit 11 [percent] next year. That is very difficult for Democrats to sustain their majorities with in the House of Representatives and I think they feel a lot of pressureto do something."

Harwood floated the number of $200 billion as the price tag, but wasn't sure how much of a dent that would put in unemployment.

"The question is how much, even if you spent $200 billion - how much could you bring the unemployment rate down?" Harwood said. "A point, a point-and-a-half maybe, but they need to see some forward movement."