"To build a 21st century economy, we must engage contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges and schools... To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerise our healthcare system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes and help reduce healthcare costs... To make America, and our children, a success in this new global economy, we will build 21st century classrooms, labs and libraries."

This was Candidate Obama vision during the campaign when he pledged to cut contract spending by $40 billion. He said the savings would be achieved through procurement reform - in particular, by using fewer cost-based contracts and encouraging more competition. He also called for more oversight of government contractors, suggesting that 25% of all large contracts should be audited each year. He was a strong and vocal supporter of the website www.usaspending.gov, which aims to increase the public transparency of government procurement. Candidate Obama also supported legislation designed to bar companies that are behind on their taxes from winning new government contracts, as well as increase a range of whistle-blower protections. The legislation would also require the Department of Defense to report every three months on its use of contractors.

So who should we expect to see in office during the next few years - the Keynesian pump-primer or the outsourcing hawk? Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive. The first is about opportunity, the second about how that opportunity will be managed.

As the scale of the economic downturn in the US becomes more apparent, the pressure on the US government to 'pump-prime' the economy has grown. The stimulus package (officially called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan) which has just been signed into law is one of the most expensive in history, costing $787bn (£551bn). It aims to save or create an estimated 3.6 million jobs.

How much debt can the US bear?

Although this is what President Obama has called "the most sweeping economic package in US history", several factors constrained his thinking on how to kickstart the American economy. Above all, was the question of how much debt could the US actually bear? In December the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its estimate of the budget deficit for 2009. It was a shocking $1.2 trillion - that's 8.3% of US GDP. Previously, the record for the largest budget deficit of modern times was held by the Reagan Administration in 1983: 6% of GDP. That CBO estimate did not include the effects of any future legislation, such as the stimulus package.  It was 'just' the forecastable imbalance between government spending and receipts.