WASHINGTON — Despite Barack Obama's decision to include as much as $100 billion in business tax breaks to his economic stimulus package to woo reluctant Republicans, obstacles to speedy, bipartisan passage remain.
The president-elect began working Monday in pursuit of twin goals -- reviving the economy and transforming the political climate in Washington -- by including GOP leaders in his first round of Capitol Hill meetings since the election. He pitched the need to act fast and with a broad consensus.
Obama is proposing to devote about $300 billion to tax cuts in a stimulus package that may total as much as $775 billion. About half of those cuts would be tax credits of up to $500 for workers earning less than $200,000 a year, although details of the plan are being worked out. The package also contains about $100 billion in business tax cuts that many conservatives have been advocating.
"I think he would like to have a large bipartisan vote in favor of this package. And he knows, even before we mentioned it, that the way to do that is obviously for it to have elements that are appealing to Republicans," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after a 90-minute meeting that Obama held with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders Monday.
"I think he's already been listening to the suggestions we've made," McConnell said.
At the same time, McConnell and House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said they were not ready to endorse the overall stimulus proposal. And other high-level Republicans voiced concern that, as appealing as tax cuts were, the overall plan raised concerns in terms of its impact on the federal deficit.
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), speaking after the closed-door meeting with Obama, said, "I think there would be a lot of support" for tax cuts among the GOP rank and file. But, he added, "we cannot afford to be burdening our children and our grandchildren with an extra trillion dollars in debt."
Even before Obama returned to Washington on Sunday from his holiday break in Hawaii, Republicans were saying his stimulus program should be subjected to the normal system of hearings and full debate, rather than rushed through to meet the economic emergency -- especially at the cost of raising the deficit.
On Monday, the president-elect said he was looking for a balanced stimulus plan that addressed the needs of businesses as well as consumers and that he hoped Congress would pass by the first week of February.
