With the US unemployment rate above 10% for the first time in 27 years, a sense of urgency is growing.

美国27年以来失业率首次高过10%，形势的紧迫感正在不断上涨。

unemployed¹ in the US according to official figures" width="226" height="170" src="/upimg/091204/4_012819_1.jpg" />
15.7 million people are unemployed in the US according to official figures

On Thursday in Washington, President Barack Obama held a jobs summit, attended by 130 business leaders, union leaders and economists³.

To the assembled experts, President Obama said that the US government must act quickly in the fight against unemployment, but cautioned that he had only limited funds to create jobs.

"We cannot hang back and hope for the best," he warned.

Indeed, any new spending plans aimed at reducing joblessness will run into opposition⁴ from Republicans in Congress.

They are already irritated（恼怒的） by the billions of dollars spent on emergency bail-outs for banks and carmakers, begun under one of their own, President George W Bush.

Running up budget deficits⁵ to be paid for by future generations has a bad name in Washington. So does "big government".

Recession fears

But an economist² on the conservative side (he advised Republican presidential candidate, John McCain in 2008), Mark Zandi of Economy.com, says deficits are a big concern, but not something we can afford to worry about right now.

"That's a problem not for 2009, not for 2010. That's a problem for 2011, 2012 and beyond," he says.

"We have to make sure that we don't go back into a recession, because if we go back into recession, the cost to taxpayers⁶ will be even greater.

"The deficits（赤字，欠缺） will be measurably larger, so I think it's important to spend more money now."

Mr Zandi says some government spending needs to be focused on state and local governments, whose tax revenues（税收，收入） have fallen, so that they do not have to lay off workers.

Another top priority（当务之急） is unemployment benefits, which normally run out after six months in the US, though they have been extended in states with the highest unemployment rates.

Mr Zandi sees continuing benefits to unemployed workers as key to maintaining demand, because people who do not have money do not buy things.

That can lead to a downward spiral（持续下降，螺旋式下跌）: if consumers do not consume, businesses cut back on workers, who then have no money to spend either.