Bush 'open' to stimulus
President, with Fed Chairman Bernanke, willing to consider second stimulus package, though Congress is divided on how to implement it.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush hinted Monday he would be willing to consider a second stimulus package, hours after America's top banker suggested one might be necessary.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Monday it would be "appropriate" for lawmakers to consider "a fiscal package."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said soon afterward that Bush is "open to ideas ... that would stimulate the economy."
The Bush administration has been resisting Democratic proposals for a second round of checks from the government to taxpayers, but Perino said the objections were to specific elements of the proposed programs.
"Several programs that have been recommended ... are coming in a cloak of being stimulative, and we don't think that those would actually stimulate the economy."
Bush met business leaders in Louisiana on Monday, and a reporter asked him afterward if he "supported the second stimulus package that Chairman Bernanke proposed today."
"Listen to Dana's quotes," the president responded.
Minutes earlier, he had said taxpayers could expect a return on the enormous sums of money the government is planning to pump into banks to ease a credit crisis.
"I can say this with confidence to the people out here, that I think we're going to get - be able to get most of your money back. And the reason I say that is because the government is really making investments."
He said many people were wondering "why a free-market-oriented president" was putting government money into buying shares in private-sector banks.
He said the magnitude of the crisis had forced his hand.
"The crisis that is gripping this country, and still has a grip on this country, affects the people around this table," he said.
Stocks surged Monday, pushing the Dow to close above the 9,200 level, as investors welcomed the talk of a second economic stimulus plan and an improvement in key lending rates.
CNN White House correspondent Elaine Quijano contributed to this report. 
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