Caught in the middle is House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, who must spearhead the recovery package for Obama next month. He told Politico that the transition has proven to be “a disaster for the country because Bush is sitting around like Hoover did.”

“The target keeps changing, it keeps getting worse,” the Wisconsin Democrat said of new estimates for what will be needed to jolt the economy. “These are calamitous events. While I think people know the economy is in trouble, I still don’t think they have a full appreciation of just how close we are to falling in the pit.

“The tragedy is [that] immense damage is going to be done to the country over the next 30 to 40 days before Obama takes office, and government is sitting here in neutral trying to decide if it is going to go forward or backward.