WASHINGTON – Hours before a meeting with President Barack Obama, House Republican leaders sought to rally opposition Tuesday to a White House-backed economic stimulus measure with an $825 billion price tag.
Several officials said that Reps. John Boehner of Ohio, the GOP leader, and Eric Cantor of Virginia, his second-in-command, delivered the appeal at a closed-door meeting of the Republican rank and file. Both men said the legislation contains too much wasteful spending that will not help the economy recover from its worst nosedive since the Great Depression, the officials added.
The officials who described the closed-door session did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose the discussions.
The request for opposition came one day after Obama extended Republicans an olive branch, appealing to House Democrats to jettison an estimated $200 million ticketed for family planning services for low-income people.
The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the bill, and congressional leaders have pledged to have it ready for Obama's signature by mid-February.
Obama has made economic recovery his top presidential priority, and the political maneuvering surrounding the stimulus legislation has become intense, only one week into his tenure.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a televised interview that Obama was having problems with Democrats, whom he said favor spending over tax cuts as a remedy for the economic crisis.
"We think the country needs a stimulus," he said on NBC's "Today" show. But he also said that he believes most people do not believe it will be accomplished through projects like "fixing up the mall," a reference to fundings to repair the National Mall in Washington. He said Republicans want a bill that devotes 40 percent of its cost to tax cuts.
The family planning funding was a particular target of Boehner and other Republicans, and Obama's intervention was timed for his meetings in the Capitol.
The decision angered some House Democrats — Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. had defended the funding in a weekend television interview — and the White House sought to ease the concerns.
"While he agrees that greater access to family planning is good policy, the president believes that the funding for it does not belong in the economic recovery and reinvestment plan," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Obama arranged two separate meetings with Republicans in the Capitol, one in the House, the other in the Senate. It was his first visit since his inauguration a week ago, and White House officials said that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman, would make the trip with him.
"The goal is to seek their input. He wants to hear their ideas," Gibbs said of the president. "If there are good ideas — and I think he assumes there will be — we will look at those ideas."
The presidential spokesman would not, however, reveal what additional concessions Obama may be willing to make, if any, to demonstrate his seriousness about securing Republican support.
"We don't have pride of authorship. We understand that this is a process of give and take to produce what the president believes is the strongest plan to get the economy going again," Gibbs said.
The White House-backed legislation includes roughly $550 billion in spending as wewll as $275 billion in tax cuts.
Most of the spending is on items such as health care, jobless benefits, food stamps and other programs that benefit victims of the recession.
House Republicans have drafted an alternative. Except for an extension of unemployment benefits, it consists exclusively of tax cuts.
Obama's meetings come as the Federal Reserve examines unconventional ways to lift the economy, and one day after several companies, including Sprint Nextel Corp., Home Depot Inc., and General Motors Corp., announced sweeping job cuts as they seek to remain solvent in an economic environment that worsens by the day amid turmoil in the financial, housing and credit sectors.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama_economy
Topic: Obama seeks GOP help on economy; McConnell hopeful (Read 388 times)