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Obama seeks Congress help for recovery plan
Source: Agencies |
January 11, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FACING resistance from within his own party on his nearly US$800 billion economic recovery plan, President-elect Barack Obama pointed to alarming new unemployment figures to urge its passage in Congress.
Obama sought to patch fissures on Friday with senior Democrats over key features of the still emerging plan, which he vowed to "hone and refine" with help from both Republican and Democratic law makers.
The need for a plan grew more pressing with the release of a Labor Department report showing job losses of 524,000 in December and a 7.2 percent unemployment rate, the highest in 16 years.
Democratic congressional officials said that Obama aides came under pressure in closed-door talks to jettison or significantly alter a proposed tax credit for creating jobs.
Further, Democrats sought inclusion of relief for upper middle-class families hit by the alternative minimum tax. The so-called AMT was originally designed to make sure the very wealthy did not escape taxes, but it now hits many more people.
The package is getting off to a rocky start, with top Democrats openly complaining about key provisions.
"If members of Congress have good ideas, if they can identify a project for me that will create jobs, that is good for the economy, then I'm going to accept it," the president-elect said.
"What we can't do is drag this out when we just saw a half-million jobs lost."
Obama also announced his CIA director, former Clinton White House chief of staff, Leon Panetta, and director of national intelligence, retired Admiral Dennis Blair.
Obama sought to patch fissures on Friday with senior Democrats over key features of the still emerging plan, which he vowed to "hone and refine" with help from both Republican and Democratic law makers.
The need for a plan grew more pressing with the release of a Labor Department report showing job losses of 524,000 in December and a 7.2 percent unemployment rate, the highest in 16 years.
Democratic congressional officials said that Obama aides came under pressure in closed-door talks to jettison or significantly alter a proposed tax credit for creating jobs.
Further, Democrats sought inclusion of relief for upper middle-class families hit by the alternative minimum tax. The so-called AMT was originally designed to make sure the very wealthy did not escape taxes, but it now hits many more people.
The package is getting off to a rocky start, with top Democrats openly complaining about key provisions.
"If members of Congress have good ideas, if they can identify a project for me that will create jobs, that is good for the economy, then I'm going to accept it," the president-elect said.
"What we can't do is drag this out when we just saw a half-million jobs lost."
Obama also announced his CIA director, former Clinton White House chief of staff, Leon Panetta, and director of national intelligence, retired Admiral Dennis Blair.
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