WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama, offering the first specifics on a key element in his $825 billion stimulus package, said yesterday that it would add 3,000 miles of electric transmission lines and double the nation's use of wind and solar power within three years.
But he pressed ahead in the face of continued Republican resistance to his ideas. Some Republicans rejected Obama's claim that he is open to their initiatives, renewing complaints that GOP proposals were being brushed aside as the administration and congressional Democrats hammered out details of the legislative package.
Obama used his first radio address to the nation as president in an apparent effort to build a broad public consensus behind a package that Obama acknowledged has generated skepticism, especially among Republicans.
He said it was needed to lift the economy out of one of the most serious economic downturns since the Great Depression. An "unprecedented crisis," Obama told listeners, calls for "unprecedented action."
Obama's stimulus - an early test of his skills in winning major legislation victories - is on track to pass before the congressional break in mid-February.
What remains unclear is whether it will attract significant Republican support.
In effect, the White House and congressional Republicans are engaged in the early stages of a political negotiation in which Obama seeks to pass his stimulus program with at least a plausible claim of bipartisan support and Republicans want to exert as much influence over the final package as they can without appearing to be obstructing action on a problem that has stirred deep concern among millions of voters.
The president travels to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with Republicans and invited them to discuss the plan in a meeting at the White House on Friday. But while Republicans seemed resigned to passage of the stimulus, they are complaining that the legislation moving through Congress contains none of their ideas.
The GOP is pushing especially hard for a new round of traditional tax cuts, while suggesting the Democrats are rushing into new government spending programs that will send the deficit soaring. Democrats insist that only large-scale federal action can stabilize the economy and begin the process of recovery.
Those competing positions were reflected in both Obama's radio speech and in GOP comments yesterday.
