President Barack Obama warned Congress on Monday not to let "modest" differences delay his stimulus plan, but Republicans demanded dramatic changes to a bill now priced at almost 900 billion dollars.
As a crunch week dawned for the huge economic kick-start measure, Obama cranked up pressure on the Senate for quick action while more grim data detailing job losses and plunging demand revealed the depth of the recession.
The president, who has spent valuable political capital chasing Republican support, admitted differences remained between the two parties and between Congress and the White House as the Senate opened debate on the bill.
"But what we can't do is let very modest differences get in the way of the overall package moving forward quickly," Obama told reporters in the Oval Office.
But Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell warned that major changes were needed to the bill passed by the House of Representatives last week.
"The package that most of my members would support would be dramatically different from what passed the House," McConnell told reporters, adding that it would be also "dramatically different" from the current Senate version.
"We need to make sure that we're not borrowing money to spend on projects that are not going to stimulate the economy," McConnell said, voicing Republican complaints the bill is partly a Democratic spending wish list.
McConnell also Monday called on Democrats to strip a "Buy American" clause from the bill, designed to ensure only US steel, iron and manufactured goods are used on infrastructure projects designed to revive the economy.
"I don't think we ought to use a measure that is supposed to be timely, temporary, and targeted to set off trade wars when the entire world is experiencing a downturn in the economy," he said.
US allies including Canada and nations in Europe have warned of grave consequences if Washington adopted such "protectionist" measures.
The White House said on Monday the clause was still under review.
The Senate version of the bill is now estimated at nearly 888 billion dollars after new tax measures were added to the 819 billion dollar version passed by the House.
Republicans, some of whom are starting to speak in terms of a "trillion dollar" stimulus plan, complain the bill contains insufficient tax cuts which they argue are needed to stimulate public demand.
They also fault much of the vast infrastructure spending in the bill, support for social programmes and funding for state initiatives, in the perennial inter-party debate over the size of the US government.
"There's too much spending, too much unnecessary spending, not the right kind of tax cuts and no endgame," former Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, told CBS.
After their drubbing in last year's elections, Republicans are trying to rebuild their reputation as a party of fiscal responsibility and are using the stimulus to test the new president's leverage.
Obama is trying to cleanse Washington of partisan bile and would also like to build Republican goodwill for future big ticket agenda items.
But last week, when the House passed its version of the stimulus, not a single Republican voted for the bill passed by the Democratic majority.
Senate Republicans have the power to delay the bill, expected to come up for a vote this week, but are not thought likely to be able to kill it, especially given the rapidly worsening economic conditions.
Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison warned on CNBC television that Democrats would "own" the package if they pushed it through Congress without Republican support and it didn't work.
"What we would like to do is try to amend the bill so that it would be something we will support," she said.
Democrats have shown some signs that they are prepared to accept Republican amendments extending tax credits for first-time home buyers designed to revive the plunging real estate market.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the White House would work to strengthen the bill, and the president was set to meet Democratic congressional leaders later at the White House.
New government data on Monday meanwhile showed consumption expenditures fell by 1.0 percent in December from the previous month.
The Commerce Department said private wage and salary disbursements decreased 23.5 billion dollars in December compared with a drop of 12.1 billion dollars in November.
As a crunch week dawned for the huge economic kick-start measure, Obama cranked up pressure on the Senate for quick action while more grim data detailing job losses and plunging demand revealed the depth of the recession.
The president, who has spent valuable political capital chasing Republican support, admitted differences remained between the two parties and between Congress and the White House as the Senate opened debate on the bill.
"But what we can't do is let very modest differences get in the way of the overall package moving forward quickly," Obama told reporters in the Oval Office.
But Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell warned that major changes were needed to the bill passed by the House of Representatives last week.
"The package that most of my members would support would be dramatically different from what passed the House," McConnell told reporters, adding that it would be also "dramatically different" from the current Senate version.
"We need to make sure that we're not borrowing money to spend on projects that are not going to stimulate the economy," McConnell said, voicing Republican complaints the bill is partly a Democratic spending wish list.
McConnell also Monday called on Democrats to strip a "Buy American" clause from the bill, designed to ensure only US steel, iron and manufactured goods are used on infrastructure projects designed to revive the economy.
"I don't think we ought to use a measure that is supposed to be timely, temporary, and targeted to set off trade wars when the entire world is experiencing a downturn in the economy," he said.
US allies including Canada and nations in Europe have warned of grave consequences if Washington adopted such "protectionist" measures.
The White House said on Monday the clause was still under review.
The Senate version of the bill is now estimated at nearly 888 billion dollars after new tax measures were added to the 819 billion dollar version passed by the House.
Republicans, some of whom are starting to speak in terms of a "trillion dollar" stimulus plan, complain the bill contains insufficient tax cuts which they argue are needed to stimulate public demand.
They also fault much of the vast infrastructure spending in the bill, support for social programmes and funding for state initiatives, in the perennial inter-party debate over the size of the US government.
"There's too much spending, too much unnecessary spending, not the right kind of tax cuts and no endgame," former Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, told CBS.
After their drubbing in last year's elections, Republicans are trying to rebuild their reputation as a party of fiscal responsibility and are using the stimulus to test the new president's leverage.
Obama is trying to cleanse Washington of partisan bile and would also like to build Republican goodwill for future big ticket agenda items.
But last week, when the House passed its version of the stimulus, not a single Republican voted for the bill passed by the Democratic majority.
Senate Republicans have the power to delay the bill, expected to come up for a vote this week, but are not thought likely to be able to kill it, especially given the rapidly worsening economic conditions.
Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison warned on CNBC television that Democrats would "own" the package if they pushed it through Congress without Republican support and it didn't work.
"What we would like to do is try to amend the bill so that it would be something we will support," she said.
Democrats have shown some signs that they are prepared to accept Republican amendments extending tax credits for first-time home buyers designed to revive the plunging real estate market.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the White House would work to strengthen the bill, and the president was set to meet Democratic congressional leaders later at the White House.
New government data on Monday meanwhile showed consumption expenditures fell by 1.0 percent in December from the previous month.
The Commerce Department said private wage and salary disbursements decreased 23.5 billion dollars in December compared with a drop of 12.1 billion dollars in November.
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