CHEYENNE - President-elect Barack Obama's $775 billion economic recovery plan is the talk of Washington, D.C., this week, but Wyoming's congressional delegates are approaching the proposal with a skeptical eye.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., in a written statement to the Star-Tribune on Tuesday, said the nation can't afford to "keep printing money and giving it away with no accountability, and expecting our children and grandchildren to sacrifice for it.

"I will consider new proposals and details as they come up," Enzi added, "but I will always remember where the money comes from and look at the long-term consequences for our children and grandchildren's fiscal future."

Obama is proposing the massive spending plan in an effort to put thousands of people to work and jump-start the badly sagging national economy.

If approved by Congress, the historic spending plan - funded completely with borrowed money - will push the 2009 federal deficit to nearly $1.2 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office announced Wednesday. The total national debt is around $11 trillion.

At the request of the incoming Obama administration, Gov. Dave Freudenthal this week submitted a list of Wyoming projects to be considered for the federal funding.

The governor's $1 billion wish list includes around $400 million for highway construction projects, $60 million for community colleges and $50 million for a new supercomputing facility in Cheyenne.

Enzi, an accountant by trade, indicated that the Freudenthal administration's project list was part of an effort by the Obama administration to pressure senators into supporting the plan.

"The governor had to respond to the request, but everyone should recognize that the request to states is a way to engineer support for the stimulus," Enzi said in the written comments. "If every state has a stake in the stimulus bill, every senator will be expected to vote for it."

Likewise, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said he has serious concerns about the recovery package - but he said he'll fight to make sure Wyoming gets its share of the money if the plan is ultimately approved.

Barrasso said he has visited with Freudenthal and state Department of Transportation Director John Cox about Wyoming's stimulus request.

"I'm going to have to wait and see exactly what's in the package," Barrasso said in a telephone interview. "And I need to be convinced that the money is going to be well spent to stimulate the economy."

Barrasso said accountability, oversight and "real value" for taxpayer money will be his priorities as he considers the massive spending plan.

It is also important that the plan not favor states that have run up massive budget deficits, Barrasso said.

"I am completely opposed to rewarding states that have been irresponsible," Barrasso said. "In Wyoming, we balance our budget every year. That's the law. So we don't have a deficit. So Wyoming's taxpayers should not be asked in any stimulus package to reward states that have been irresponsible."

Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who was only sworn into office on Tuesday, said she had not yet seen Freudenthal's project list, nor the Obama administration's proposed stimulus package.

But she will be looking carefully to be sure it actually works to stimulate the economy and is "not just an excuse to spend lots of money" in congressional members' home districts.

"I am more inclined to support stimulus through tax reductions or tax holidays than stimulus that requires further deficit spending," Lummis, the former state treasurer, said in a Tuesday interview.

Freudenthal, a Democrat, declined to criticize the delegation's cool reception toward the recovery plan, saying it would be inappropriate for him to tell them how to do their jobs.

But he did say that Wyoming should get its share of the money.

"This money is going to get spent," Freudenthal said. "And if it's going to be spent, it ought to get spent in Wyoming every bit as much as any other state."

Star-Tribune capital bureau reporter Joan Barron contributed to this report.

Contact reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@trib.com.