Obama locks horns with congress

Barack Obama is fighting his first major political battle with the US congress over the gargantuan economic stimulus plan.

While eventual passage of some version of the plan seems certain, Republicans are seeking to inflict maximum political damage on the new president and his ascendant Democratic party.

Obama opened with an appeal for bipartisanship, seeking out Republicans in their lair on Capitol Hill, asking for their ideas, even wining and dining them at a SuperBowl football party.

But Republicans in the House of Representatives spurned his overtures, unanimously turning up their noses at the stimulus plan.

Culture War politics

Senate Republicans have successfully seized on parts of the package they could portray as frivolous or wasteful - such as $50m in funding for the arts.

The arts gambit is a good example of the old Culture War politics that Republicans have used effectively in the past.

They seek to convince ordinary, gun-toting, 'Joe-SixPack' Americans that Obama wants to waste their tax money on some fancy operas and ballets that will only be enjoyed by the wealthy, snobbish elites.

But don't artists, dancers and actors need jobs too?

Money for arts, science funding and several of the other items pounced on by Republicans amount to less than one per cent of the plan's overall cost.

But Republicans blanketed the US media with a campaign portraying the stimulus as just another wasteful, bloated bailout - reframing the terms of the debate.

Analysts say Obama underestimated how fiercely the Republicans would fight.

Middle East friction

While domestic economic concerns are Obama's top priority, foreign policy dilemmas and opportunities are also emerging for the new administration.

George Mitchell, Obama's new Middle East envoy, returned from his initial tour of the region, the first of what will no doubt be many trips.

Benyamin Netanyahu, head of Israel's right-wing Likud Party, is looking like the probable victor in Israeli elections next week.

That could set up possible friction between Washington and Jerusalem, especially since "Bibi", as he is often known, is ratcheting up the anti-Hamas rhetoric and threatening more military attacks on Gaza.

A Likud victory might seem like a win for the more intransigent elements in the Israeli polity.

However, it's important to remember that, in the past, Likud leaders have moved toward rapproachment with the Arab states and to an extent with the Palestinians - such as Menachem Begin at Camp David, and Ariel Sharon (despite his penchant for massive use of force) in dismantling Jewish settlements in Gaza.

It is possible that if elected, Netanyahu's political position could be strong enough to initiate some sort of bold move to break the current deadlock.

It is unlikely, however, that peace on Netanyahu's terms would be very palatable to many Palestinians.

Iran negotiations

Meanwhile in far off Kyrgyzstan an early challenge to the new Obama administration has emerged.

In a fairly blatant quid pro quo, the Kyrgyz government has decided to kick the US military out of its Manas airbase, after Russia agreed to hand over two billion dollars.

The move hits right at the US's ability to supply its troops in Afghanistan.

The Russian government of Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev seem certain to probe and prod Obama to test his resolve and see whether he will push back.

So-called ping-pong diplomacy played a role in Nixon and Kissinger's historic opening with China in 1972.

And, for a while, it seemed like badminton diplomacy might help break the 30-year old freeze in relations between the US and Iran - until the Iranians refused to grant visas for a US women's badminton team.

But this weekend Joe Biden, the US vice-president, will be attending a security conference in Munich, Germany, and the Iranian foreign minister will be there, too.

Could there be a meeting? Perhaps not negotiations - but conversations? Maybe.

By Rob Reynolds, senior Washington correspondent ,AlJazeera

U.S. Senate Vote on Stimulus Stalls

The US senate has failed to vote on Barack Obama's $900bn economic stimulus plan despite the president's call to move quickly to avoid a "catastrophe" as unemployment figures rose to the highest levels since 1982.

"The time for talk is over, the time for action is now," Obama said in Washington on Thursday.

"I am calling on the members of congress, Democrats and Republicans, to rise to this moment."

But after spending hours trying to hammer out a bipartisan compromise on the bill which aims to revive the struggling US economy, senators halted work late on Thursday and were to resume debate on Friday.

The recess dashed hopes of a vote on the senate's version of the bill which the House of Representatives, the other chamber of congress, passed last week.

Republican complaints

Republicans complain that the bill is too large, contains insufficient tax cuts and is filled with spending on unnecessary projects which will not immediately create jobs.

Later on Thursday Obama decried what he described as the "petty politics" and "false theories" of the plan's critics, saying the time had come to show "leadership" over the economic crisis.

Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera's senior Washington correspondent, said the Obama administration had gone on the offensive over the economy in recent days to counter Republican criticisms of the stimulus package, which Obama has said will create three million jobs.

The severity of the economic crisis was underlined by new figures on Thursday showing the number of US workers filing new jobless benefit claims rose to 626,000 in the last week of January - the highest level since the end of October 1982.

The US president had written earlier on Thursday in an editorial in the Washington Post newspaper that the economy was in the worst state since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone - millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished," Obama wrote in the newspaper.

Bonus ban

The senate did pass one amendment to the bill on Thursday, voting to ban bonuses for top executives at banks or companies receiving taxpayer money from the previous $700bn bailout fund passed last year.

On Wednesday, the senate also voted to soften a "Buy American" plan in the bill after Obama expressed concern that it could spark a trade war.

Senators approved an amendment requiring the Buy American provisions be "applied in a manner consistent with US obligations under international agreements".

The change was designed to reassure Canada, Mexico, the European Union and other major trading partners that they would be exempt from a requirement in the bill that all public works projects funded by the stimulus package use only US-made iron, steel and manufactured goods.

The House of Representatives had passed a nearly identical "Buy America" provision without such a guarantee.

The US economy is in a recession following months of market turmoil sparked by the subprime mortgage crisis, tight credit conditions and slumping global markets.