Obama meets top lawmakers, eyes big tax cut

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Dec. 23: Salon.com’s Joan Walsh and msnbc political analyst Pat Buchanan debate how well President Barack Obama has fulfilled his campaign promises.

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The Obama plan's tax cuts for individuals and couples would be a bit different from the rebate checks sent out last year by the Bush administration and Congress in a bid to boost the slowing economy. The relief this time around would be awarded by withholding less from worker paychecks. That provision would cost about $140 billion to $150 billion over two years.

For businesses, the plan would allow firms incurring losses last year to take a credit against profits dating back five years instead of the two years currently allowed.

Another provision brought to the negotiations by the Obama team would award a one-year tax credit costing $40 billion to $50 billion to companies that hire new workers, and would provide other incentives for business investment in new equipment.

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"We've got an extraordinary economic challenge ahead of us," Obama said, and he predicted a jobs report at the end of the week would show new declines.

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He had meetings with a broad array of House and Senate Democratic leaders and with a bipartisan group of key lawmakers. He had hoped to have Congress enact the recovery plan in time for him to sign when he takes office Jan. 20, but no one thinks that will happen now.

Obama has insisted that bold and quick action is necessary if the nation is to rebound from the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. He has said repeatedly he wants a plan that will create 3 million new jobs.

The economic teams of new presidents often work behind the scenes with congressional leaders before their administrations move in, but Obama's direct and public involvement is highly unusual.

He arrived Sunday night in Washington and spent all of Monday at the Capitol before returning to the hotel where he has set up shop for the two weeks before his inauguration.

Aides have said the package Obama has dubbed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan could cost as much as $775 billion. The president-elect has refused to put a price tag on the plan, and some members of Congress expect it to go higher.