Coming out of a "listening session" with econominsts, House Democratic leaders defended their approach to the economy and indicated another stimulus package may be necessary.

Mark Zandi, an economic adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign and chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, said more taxpayer money was needed up front and that "another stimulus is a reasonable probability."

Asked if she agreed with Zandi's comment, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yes.

The "word of the day," Pelosi said, is "confidence -- confidence in our markets, confidence in lending, confidence in our financial institutions." It's also "about time," she said. "In order to instill confidence, the President has taken a new direction. And it takes time."

"In record time, we have passed the President's economic recovery plan and we are now anticipating very positive outcomes from that," Pelosi said. "Last week, the President put in motion the housing proposal and we are positive in anticipation of what that will result in."

Zandi, among four economists to meet with House Democrats today, credited the speedy economic policy decisions of the White House and Congress and said that "by this time next year, the economy will stabilize."

"The policy response to date has been very good, and we've got to give it a chance to work, which I think it will," Zandi said.

"What we heard [in the meeting] was that President Obama was right when he called for an economic stimulus right away," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.).