Obama Using Grab-bag Approach To Fight Recession

He also is proposing extending a number of programs already included in his February stimulus measure, including extra support to state and local governments to keep them from having to lay off workers.

"Obama is trying an eclectic approach to jump-starting employment growth and that is not surprising given that the labor market today is the worst it has been since the Great Depression," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

Obama's efforts are sizable compared with the stimulus measures offered by recent administrations — also not surprising, given that the recession that began in December 2007 is the longest and deepest since the 1930s.

President George W. Bush offered immediate tax rebates when he was trying to get the country out of the brief and mild downturn that hit during his first year in office.

Like Obama, Ronald Reagan also faced unemployment above 10 percent during his first term, but his answer to the 1981-82 recession was to emphasize a major tax cut that reduced the top tax rates. Reagan's jobs program was a sizable military buildup that increased troop strength and bolstered employment among defense contractors.

Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford also battled serious recessions in the 1970s, but their government stimulus efforts had to take into account soaring inflation from a series of oil shocks that gave the country a new economic worry: stagflation, a toxic mix of inflation and economic stagnation.