U.S. leaders should be open to the possibility of a second stimulus package to further boost the economy, which is still hemorrhaging jobs, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday.
"It's certainly too early right now ... to say it's not working," Hoyer said of the initial stimulus package. "In fact we believe it is working. We believe there are a lot of people who otherwise would have been laid off, lost their jobs, who haven't done that." The rate of job losses was slowing, but "it's not where it ought to be," he added.
Some areas of the economy were still in trouble, he said, "housing being the leading sector." "I think we need to be open to whether we need additional action," he said.
Last month employers shed some 467,000 jobs, which sent the unemployment rate up to 9.5 percent, the highest in nearly 26 years.
However, the jobs outlook is expected to get worse in coming months, with President Barack Obama and many economists predicting it will surge past 10 percent.
So suggestions of a second stimulus have been bubbling up amid criticism by Republicans who have argued that the first package was misdirected and wasted money on programs that will not boost the economy or create jobs.
Debt prices also fell on Tuesday in part because of concerns about further federal borrowing and appetite by investors. The deficit is expected to hit an eye-popping $1.8 trillion in the 2009 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Obama, who led the charge for the $787 billion package when he took office in the
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