Obama to Meet With Republicans Over Economic Stimulus Bill

President Barack Obama is scheduled to go to Congress today to lobby Republican Congressional leaders hostile to a multi-billion spending package aimed at getting the US out of recession.

Only a week after the heady optimism of inauguration day, Obama will come up against political reality when he hold a private meeting with House Republican leaders.

Opposition is building among Republicans who are already rejecting the president's calls for a bipartisan approach to the economic crisis and are threatening to vote against the bill when it goes before the House on Wednesday.

The bill is aimed at pumping a staggering $825bn (£593) into the economy to try to reverse the deepening recession. The biggest spending package since Roosevelt's New Deal, the bill aims to save or create 3 to 4m jobs through starting a series of infrastructure projects, including new roads, bridges, electricity lines and sewage works.

The bill offers America's best hope of finding a way out of the recession, with a possible knock-on effect for the rest of the world.But Republicans are expressing skepticism about whether many of the projects in the bill would help stimulate the economy. The success of Obama's presidency hangs on this bill.

Obama, who is resigned to spending much of the next few weeks lobbying Republicans, today called for the bill to be passed as a matter of urgency. He is hoping it will be on his desk at the Oval Office for signing by February 16.

Speaking to journalists at the White House today, Obama said the nation could not afford distractions or delay, listing major companies that have recently shed tens of thousands of jobs.

The Democrats have a big enough majority in the House to get Obama's bill through. Although the Democrats enjoy a majority in the Senate too, it is not big enough to prevent Republican delaying tactics.

Senator John McCain, defeated by Obama in the November election, is among Republicans who have promised in recent days to vote against the bill. "There have to be major rewrites if we want to stimulate the economy. ... As it stands now, I can't vote for it," McCain said.

The House Republican leader, John Boehner, predicted that members of his party will vote against the package because it includes too much spending that does not create jobs, and too few tax cuts.

Obama included in the bill proposals for tax cuts to try to win over Republicans but Republicans argue they do not go far enough and that too much of the $825bn package covers Obama's campaign pledges on education and health that will not stimulate the economy.

The Republicans are unlikely to wreck the bill, only to seek more concessions in the weeks ahead. The tax cuts would take $275bn of the $825bn: education $142bn; health care $111bn; welfare and unemployment benefits $102bn; and infrastructure $122 billion.

Tim Geithner, Obama's choice as Treasury secretary, is expected to be confirmed later today by the Senate. He ran into trouble at this confirmation hearings after revelations that he had failed to pay his tax bills.