Obama courts GOP on stimulus

President-elect Obama and congressional Democrats are bending to the will of the diminished Republican conferences in order to pass the massive stimulus package that will be the centerpiece of Obama’s first days as president.

They’re dramatically slowing the pace in order to give Republicans a voice in hearings. Obama said he wanted legislation to his desk by Presidents Day, replacing Inauguration Day as the new deadline for getting the package to the White House.

{mosads}And they’ve gone big for tax cuts — the conservative Republican mantra for decades. A $300 billion effort to slash taxes has become an accepted part of the package.

“The monopoly on good ideas does not belong to a single party,” Obama told Republican and Democratic leaders in their closed-door meeting Monday afternoon. “If it’s a good idea, we will consider it.”

Republicans took note that the negotiations have been going their way. They recalled that initially, Democrats talked about ramming through a bill focused on public works projects without hearings, except for one in a committee with no Republicans.

 “The different-ness is a dramatic expansion of the amount that goes to tax relief,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

But GOP officials also remained wary.

“I remain concerned about wasteful spending that might be attached to the tax relief,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). “Simply put, we should not bury future generations under mountains of debt and create 600,000 new government jobs.”

But the overall size of the package remains a big question mark, and a potential disagreement between the two chambers. House aides say there’s a general agreement around the amount of $775 billion.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), pressed for a figure on the overall size, said that Obama was talking about much larger numbers from his discussions with economists.

“He has indicated that there’s at least 20 economists that he’s talked with,” Reid said, “and all but one of those believe it should be from $800 billion to $1.2 trillion or $1.3 trillion.”

To the surprise of some, congressional liberals offered up little initial resistance to the sudden turn to tax cuts, which has been a conservative mantra since Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who comes from the liberal wing of her party, spent the day repeatedly praising the changes Obama was making.

“I commend President-elect Obama for agreeing to work in a bipartisan way,” Pelosi said.

{mospagebreak}One labor leader offered support for having 40 percent of the package go to tax cuts as long as the size of the overall package was large — in the $675 billion to $775 billion range that has been discussed on Capitol Hill.

“It’s not a problem if the package is big enough,” said Bill Samuel, legislative director for the AFL-CIO. He noted that some have called for a larger stimulus package, and suggested the AFL-CIO would not be opposed to something bigger.

{mosads}In his meetings on Capitol Hill, Obama signaled a willingness to accommodate Republicans, Democratic leaders and even Democratic staffers. He was on time for his meeting with Pelosi. He wore a flag pin.

And when he saw that chairs for staff had been pushed away from those for lawmakers, he pulled them all into a circle.

When Boehner complained that the lack of transparency surrounding the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street made it even more important to have a transparent process now, Obama concurred.

“I agree with you,” Obama said, adding later, “I will demand complete transparency and accountability in doing it.”

Pelosi said the bill will go to the Appropriations and Ways and Means committees for hearings.

Republicans in the meeting said she conceded on hearings only reluctantly.

The tax cut plan is not expected to generate any rebate checks, but would fatten American paychecks by reducing the amount of money withheld for income taxes.

A top House aide said there was an agreement not to include earmarks even before Obama and the Democrats met with Republicans.

While unions want the stimulus to be geared toward creating jobs and putting people back to work, Samuel said the AFL-CIO could support setting some money aside for businesses to reinvest.

But he said strings should be attached to those business tax cuts to ensure money went toward its goal of creating jobs.

The Service Employees International Union is focused on steering stimulus funds toward state and local governments, and is still awaiting information on Obama’s plans for tax cuts and other provisions in the stimulus, according to a source at the union.

Samuel said Democratic leaders in Congress and Obama seemed to be on the same page in terms of the stimulus package’s size and breakdown, including that a large portion of it go to tax cuts.