Jan 5 (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama and leaders in the U.S. Congress are trying to craft legislation that they hope will stimulate the U.S. economy, which has been in a recession for more than a year.

Their recipe is a combination of emergency spending by the federal government and tax cuts to create or save 3 million jobs and put more money in people's pockets to spend on consumer goods.

The following is a list of what could become the key elements of the legislation, although significant changes could occur before the House of Representatives and Senate actually vote on a bill:

* THE PRICE TAG: Obama officials and Democrats in Congress have been talking about a spending $675 billion to $775 billion over two years. Some U.S. governors and economists are pushing for something even larger -- around $1 trillion. Many Republicans want a more modest bill, maybe in the range of $500 billion.

* PRICE COMPARISON: To put the potential cost in perspective, Washington spends about $1 trillion every year on all government activities put together, except for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and some other "entitlement" programs that together cost about $2 trillion a year.

A year ago, an economic stimulus bill costing $168 billion over two years was enacted before the U.S. economy sunk into deeper trouble. About $850 billion has been spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past eight years.

* WHEN IT WILL HAPPEN: Even though Democrats had hoped to present Obama with a bill to sign into law on his first day in office, Jan. 20, it's now looking like mid-February is more realistic. Obama fears a delay could deepen the recession and bring double-digit unemployment. The current jobless rate nationally is 6.7 percent.

* WHERE THE MONEY WOULD BE SPENT: Democrats want to undertake major road, bridge, transit and other public works projects, both to mend crumbling "infrastructure" and to quickly create new construction jobs. Obama also wants to spend some of the money to help the healthcare industry create electronic medical records. Well over $100 billion could be spent on the various projects.

-- Other likely recipients: States want $250 billion to help pay the rising costs of Medicaid health insurance for the poor and other social services amid falling revenues. Republicans have suggested these funds come in the form of loans rather than grants.