For Speaker, Calculated Stimulus Steps (Pelosi)

WASHINGTON — Representative Nancy Pelosi spent her first year as speaker battling her political opponents with mixed results. Now, she has begun her second session by antagonizing some of her allies with a major economic proposal that could mark a turning point in her leadership of the House.

Ms. Pelosi’s decision to abandon central Democratic tenets of past economic recovery measures to instead funnel cash directly to more Americans is drawing criticism from some lawmakers, labor leaders and representatives of core Democratic constituencies who contend she settled for too little.

But her calculation was instrumental in reaching a quick accord on the $150 billion package with the Bush administration and House Republicans, an agreement that put her on a more equal policy footing with the White House and showed increasing confidence in asserting her authority.

"There isn’t any way you are speaker for a year and don’t have growth," said Ms. Pelosi, referring to her personal and political development as she described her rationale in trading expanded unemployment benefits and added food stamp money for making 35 million lower-income households eligible for a federal check later this year.

The absence of those added benefits, long a cornerstone of Democratic economic

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/washington/27pelosi.html?ref=us