Obama says his economic plan will be refined

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that he and Congress will "hone and refine" his nearly $800 billion economic recovery plan, as he seeks to patch fissures with senior Democrats over key features of the still-emerging plan.

The job was made more urgent with the release of a Labor Department report showing job losses of 524,000 in December and a 7.2 percent unemployment rate, the highest in 16 years.

Obama said he welcomed input from lawmakers in both parties. His plan is getting off to a rocky start, with top Democrats openly slamming key provisions, especially the design of his tax cuts.

"If members of Congress have good ideas, if they can identify a projects for me that will create jobs in an efficient way that does not hamper our ability over the long term to get control of our deficit, that is good for the economy, then I'm going to accept it," the president-elect said.

Democrats such as Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad complained that many of the incoming administration's proposed tax cuts wouldn't work. Republicans warned against excessive new spending, with both parties signaling the incoming president they intend to place their own stamp on the economic recovery effort.

"What we can't do is drag this out when we just saw a half-million jobs lost," Obama said

Conrad also has staked a firm position against using the economic recovery plan for permanent spending increases, opening a split with House Democrats hoping to use the plan to broaden eligibility for unemployment insurance and boost education spending.

"Doing things that would have a permanent effect when we face trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see is just unwise," Conrad said.

A call for a $3,000 tax break for job creation drew particular criticism in a closed-door meeting, and numerous lawmakers said Obama had not ticketed enough of his tax proposal for energy and that more needed to be done to ease the Housing crisis.

But Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Friday that areas of broad agreement and universal sentiment of the need to act far outweigh areas of disagreement.

"Please don't get the idea there was some sort of breakdown here," Boxer told reporters.