Faced with rising criticism from economists and Democrats alike, President-elect Barack Obama yesterday scrapped his plan to include $150 billion in business tax credits in his emerging economic stimulus proposal.

The provision would have given businesses a $3,000 tax credit or every new employee they hired, and every employee they planned to fire but retained instead. Democrats, the Washington Post reported this morning, “dismissed the $3,000 credit … as ripe for abuse and difficult to administer. When no champion for the proposal came forward, the president-elect decided to sideline the incentive.”

“We’ve always said we’re open to other ideas. This was never set in stone,” said a senior Obama adviser of the decision.

No word yet if the $150 billion will be redirected elsewhere.