Jump-Starting the Obama Presidency

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President Elect Barack Obama introduced four new members of his economic team, Timothy F. Geithner, Christina Romer, Lawrence Summers and Melody Barnes, at the Chicago Hilton Towers in downtown Chicago.

Jon Lowenstein / NOOR for TIME

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Plan of attack: Whatever its other challenges, the new economic team already has one huge advantage: economists from both right and left now agree that a massive stimulus measure is needed--and soon. The éminence grise of Republican economic advisers, Harvard's Martin Feldstein, raised some eyebrows in October by saying the stimulus package might need to be as big as $300 billion. Already that seems timid. Jan Hatzius, chief economist for Goldman Sachs, is telling clients he expects Obama's stimulus package to be $400 billion to $500 billion a year in order to compensate for a retrenchment in personal spending. Regardless of the final size, here are some of the likely elements of Obama's plan.

Tax cuts: The middle class will get a tax cut quickly, say several Democrats familiar with the planning. There may also be a payroll tax break to speed some extra cash to all. Obama may even postpone his plans to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and delay any tax hike on top-tier earners until 2011, when the cuts expire under current law.

Jobs: Obama has promised to create 2.5 million new jobs and plans to do so, at least in part, the old-fashioned way: by rebuilding sewer systems, bridges, schools and other ailing parts of the nation's infrastructure. After the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed in 2007, killing 13, the National Transportation Safety Board identified some 740 bridges of similar age and design in the U.S. They'll be targeted for repair. But Obama believes that the country could invest wisely in a new generation of green jobs as well, in fields such as alternative energy and advanced biofuels. He has long promised to make the economy more energy efficient, but his plans in this area have always been somewhat murky. What has become clear in recent weeks is that his plans for investing in energy will be merged with his need to stimulate the economy. This means upgrading the nationwide electrical grid to prevent power outages and shore up weak spots. Democratic officials say another key initiative will be a nationwide campaign to install so-called smart meters that monitor energy flows to limit waste. Some high-tech players in the field claim such devices could ease pressures on the grid and save consumers millions.

Health care: While Obama cannot insert a fully formed, carefully drafted plan for universal health coverage into a hurried-up economic-stimulus plan, transition aides say he will direct billions toward the health-care sector immediately. Some will go to a massive tech upgrade for an industry that in many ways is still paper-based. More urgent is the need to funnel cash directly from Washington to states so that local legislators don't rush to cut spending on Medicaid as state tax receipts dry up in the recession. "Absent some relief there, you'll get Medicaid budgets slashed," says a senior Democratic aide familiar with the plans.

Depending on what Summers and Geithner propose, the size of the total package could easily top $500 billion in the first year, dwarfing the $150 billion stimulus Bush pushed through Congress in February. The inertia that typically keeps Congress from spending itself silly has gone on vacation: Republicans are in retreat, and even they agree that something dramatic is necessary. If anything, only the President-elect is talking about scrubbing the federal budget carefully for savings.