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21 DAYS TO INAUGURATION

December 30, 2008

Congressional Republicans said they would work with Democrats to craft a plan to stimulate the economy, but only if GOP ideas are considered for a bill that could cost as much as $1 trillion. "We need the right mix of tax relief and other measures to grow the economy," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement yesterday. The Democrats' plan to pass a yet-unwritten stimulus bill before President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration next month gives Congress too little time to consider what's in it, he said. McConnell's comments and a simultaneous statement by House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio indicate that Republicans are emerging from their political foxhole with a traditional call for smaller government. Obama is proposing a package of as much as $775 billion over two years, his advisers say, though they think add-ons by lawmakers could raise the price to $850 billion. An $850-billion plan could generate about 3.2 million jobs by the first quarter of 2011, advisers say.

The Federal Election Commission, in an unusual party-line vote, has overruled a recommendation by its counsel to fine a U.S. Chamber of Commerce group accused of illegal spending practices in attacking the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004. The Republican members of the FEC opposed the penalty against the chamber's November Fund, creating a 3-3 deadlock that rejected the counsel's recommendation. The November Fund was accused of violating federal campaign spending limits by using $3 million it received from the chamber to attack Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, a former trial lawyer, in 2004. The vote to reverse its counsel's recommendation was highly unusual. The commission has three Democrats and three Republicans, with four votes needed for any enforcement action. There were 12 instances in which groups like the November Fund were accused of violating campaign finance rules in the 2004 presidential race. Only the November Fund avoided any fine.