Obama pushes stimulus plan on Hill

President-elect Barack Obama laid his huge economic stimulus plan before Congress on Monday and received warm support from Republicans on his first full day of work in Washington.

Top Republican leaders from the Senate and House emerged from their meeting with Mr. Obama to say they expected to pass the $800 billion plan within six weeks, though details of the stimulus were still being worked out.

“We welcome the opportunity to be included in the discussion,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican. “I’m convinced, as a result of listening to the president-elect, that he is interested in what Republican ideas might be offered.”

Mr. McConnell said Republicans would most enthusiastically support tax cuts that the Obama transition team says would comprise 40 percent of the expenditure, or about $300 billion.

Mr. Obama touted the need for bipartisanship at the beginning of an hourlong meeting with Democratic and Republican leaders.

“Where in the past sometimes we fought about issues in terms of Republican [and] Democrat, we are in one of those periods in American history where we don’t have Republican or Democratic problems, we have American problems,” Mr. Obama said.

“The American people I think are counting on us to act swiftly, boldly but responsibly in dealing with these issues,” said the president-elect.

But tension remained between Mr. Obama’s desire that “Washington work on an expedited schedule,” as one participant in the meeting said the president-elect requested, and Republican wishes that there be a full public vetting of the bill to ensure that the money is spent well.

“The next step should be, if he is going to operate in good faith - along with Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi - they will produce a bill that has no pork barrel spending, no earmarks, no waste,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, during an interview in his office.

Mr. Cantor, one of the four Republican leaders to attend the meeting with Mr. Obama, also said any tax relief would need to be “meaningful.”

“We cannot afford another trillion dollars in spending to basically go down the tubes and not the have the impact long term,” he said, indicating his displeasure with the efforts so far under President Bush to turn the economy around.

Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, acknowledged privately to reporters that a bill will be passed after Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, rather than by that point as she had said in a letter last week. But her office was noncommittal on whether more than one hearing will be held to review the legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said that the $800 billion figure floated by the Obama transition office in recent days is the low end of what it will likely cost.

“We have not received, of course, the exact package from the president-elect and his folks, but he has indicated that there’s at least 20 economists that he’s talked with, and all but one of those believe it should be from $800 billion to $1.2 or $1.3 trillion,” Mr. Reid said after his meeting with Mr. Obama.

Besides the tax cuts, the plan’s price tag is expected to include about $400 billion for infrastructure and public works nationwide and about $100 billion for business incentives. About half the tax cuts would give $500 to individuals and $1,000 to families that make less than $200,000 a year, including workers who do not make enough money to pay year-end federal income taxes.

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