Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) – The White House predicted Tuesday that Republicans will support the $825-billion economic recovery package that is expected to pass the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
 
Republican House leaders, however, have criticized the bill and noted that the expected return on investment could be several years down the road.
 
Seeking bipartisan support for the bill, President Barack Obama went to Capitol Hill to meet with congressional Republican leaders on Tuesday. The meeting came a day after another big round of layoffs at major companies such as General Motors, Caterpillar, Sprint and Home Depot.
 
“The statistics every day underscore the emergency of the economic situation -- the American people expect action,” Obama said.
 
Republicans all along have expressed opposition to spending proposals that they say do nothing to create jobs. They also point to Congressional Budget Office numbers predicting that the bill’s enactment will increase the federal budget deficit by $816 billion over the next 10 years without any immediate economic benefit.
 
The newly elected Democratic president tried to soften some of that criticism on Tuesday.
 
“The key right now is to be sure we keep politics to a minimum,” Obama told reporters after meeting with House Republican leaders. “There are legitimate philosophical differences with parts of my plan that the Republicans have, and I respect that. I don’t expect 100 percent agreement, nor do my Republican colleagues. But I do hope we can all put politics aside and do the American people’s business.”
 
Obama met with House Republicans at noon and with Senate Republicans just before 2 p.m.
 
Later, in statements to the media, House Republicans thanked the president for meeting with them and listening to their proposals.
 
“We had a very good conversation with the President.  He reiterated his desire to work with us and to try to find common ground where we could,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio). He said Republicans look forward to continuing to work with the president “to improve this package in the coming days.”
 
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor said he was encouraged to hear President Obama say that he has no pride of authorship in the stimulus bill: “We take that to mean that [Wednesday’s] vote is only the first step in the process, only the beginning, and we intend to take the President at his word and to continue to refine what it is that the House Republicans have put forth on Friday as our plan.”
 
House GOP Conference Chairman Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana faulted House Democrats for not sharing the same bipartisan spirit as the president.
 
“The American people deserve to know that the president’s call for a compromise has been completely ignored by House Democrats who would use a time of national economic crisis to fund their big government priorities under the guise of stimulating the economy,” said Pence in a statement released after the meeting with Obama.
 
Pence referenced parts of the bill he said had little to do with helping the economy, such as $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts; $200 million to plant sod on the National Mall; $400 million for climate change research; and $200 million for contraception. (According to the Associated Press, Democrats have voted to delete the Mall-sod provision.)
 
“The Democrat bill won't stimulate anything but more government and more debt,” said Pence. “The slow and wasteful spending in the House Democrat bill is a disservice to millions of Americans who want to see this Congress take immediate action to get this economy moving again.”
 
“House Republicans have a better solution,” said Pence. “By enacting the Republican plan for fast-acting tax relief for working families and small businesses, the American people will see immediate results that will put our nation on the road to recovery.”
 
The bill, entitled the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also would extend benefits under Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and nutrition assistance programs, while offering some tax relief.
 
It is uncertain how quickly that spending could revive the economy, according to CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf. That is because federal spending can be delayed, Elmendorf wrote on the CBO blog, due to the time needed to enter contracts and conduct regulatory and environmental reviews.
 
“Frequently, in the past, in all types of federal programs, a noticeable lag has occurred between sharp increases in funding and resulting increases in outlays,” Elmendorf wrote.
 
“Based on such experiences, CBO expects that federal agencies, states, and other recipients of funding would find it difficult to properly manage and oversee a rapid expansion of existing programs so as to spend added funds quickly as they expend their normal resources. The seasonal nature of some spending also affects the speed at which activities can be conducted; for example, major school repairs are generally scheduled during the summer to avoid disrupting classes.”
 
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said there is a “credible case that reconditioning the National Mall would create jobs” and possibly increase spending at small businesses near one of the nation’s most widely visited parks.
 
Gibbs said he was confident there will be Republican votes for the package and hopes the House will move on it by Wednesday.
 
Obama stressed Tuesday that this would not be the last action taken to get the economy moving again. 
 
“The recovery package that is being proposed and is moving its way through Congress is just one leg in a multi-legged stool,” Obama said. “We’re still going to have to have much better financial regulations. We’ve got to get credit flowing again. We’re going to have to deal with the troubled assets that some of the banks are still carrying that have locked up the credit system. We’re going to have to coordinate with other countries because now it’s a global problem.”