President Bush and members of Congress have been discussing how to stimulate the U.S. economy, which has seen growth hurt by tightening credit in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
The Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, has told a U.S. Senate committee that any stimulus must come quickly or it may do more harm than good.
Orszag said Tuesday tax rebates, like those proposed by the White House, could take as long as six months to be effective. A better option, he suggested, would be to approve unemployment benefits or food stamps for more immediate effect.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
