Steve Chapman Recommend this article  Times of emergency produce
demands for action, and Barack Obama does not need to be urged
twice. Weeks before taking office, he wants Congress to pass a
fiscal stimulus bill costing half a trillion dollars or so, and
his allies on Capitol Hill will undoubtedly give it to him. Amid
a recession that some fear will spiral into a depression, no one
wants to be accused of doing too little.  Obama's plan is
expected to call for a host of remedies -- including extended
unemployment benefits, aid to state governments, more
infrastructure spending and a middle-class tax cut. It brings to
mind the character in Stephen Leacock's humorous novel "Gertrude
the Governess," who "flung himself upon his horse and rode madly
off in all directions."  Even many conservatives, however, want
Washington to deploy fiscal weapons. Economist John Taylor of
Stanford University and the Hoover Institution, an adviser to
John McCain's campaign, says it "would be a significant stimulus
to the economy" i