WASHINGTON - Facing an increasingly ominous economic outlook, President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats on Sunday rapidly ratcheted up plans for a massive fiscal stimulus program that could total as much as $700 billion over the next two years.

Taking center stage in the economic crisis for the third day running, Obama dispatched his aides to pitch his rapidly expanding stimulus plan, and today he plans to introduce his economic team at his second news conference since the election.

Appearing on the Sunday talk shows, Obama's advisers indicated that the ambitious plan he announced Saturday to create 2.5 million public works and alternative-energy jobs will be far more costly than previously discussed.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," David Axelrod, Obama's chief political strategist, said the president-elect is now weighing whether to let the cuts for the wealthy, those earning more $250,000 or more, expire on Dec. 31, 2010, as provided in current law. Such a delay would permit Obama to avoid raising taxes during a recession.

There are downsides to such a dramatic increase in government spending, however, especially at a time when the annual federal budget deficit already is spiraling toward $1 trillion -- about 7 percent of the gross domestic product -- a level not seen since the end of World War II. Increasing the deficit means increasing the national debt, which eventually will have to be repaid, with interest, to largely foreign creditors. It also means the nation will be even less prepared to cover the skyrocketing costs of Medicare and Social Security as the baby boomer generation retires.

"The 1930s recession became the Great Depression because policymakers didn't take the necessary actions. Nobody wants to make that mistake this time around," said Jared Bernstein, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute who has been advising Democrats. "Is there a possibility that we could overshoot? Of course. But from what I've seen, the danger is not doing enough."

Hints of a massive new spending program began emerging last week. Democratic New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, an Obama adviser, and Harvard economist Lawrence Summers, whom Obama has chosen to lead his White House economic team, both raised the possibility of $700 billion in new spending.

Republicans quickly criticized the idea of such a vast new initiative, saying Congress should instead cut taxes to spur economic growth.

"Democrats can't seem to stop trying to outbid each other -- with the taxpayers' money," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "We're in tough economic times. Folks are hurting.

"But the American people know that more Washington spending isn't the answer."