Today: The Inaugural Concert
Today is the big inaugural concert to celebrate Barack Obama's incoming presidency, featuring acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder and many more. HBO has the exclusive TV rights, but the audio will also be streamed online by NPR from 2-5 p.m. ET.

Obama And Biden Visits Arlington National Cemetery
Barack Obama and Joe Biden visited Arlington National Cemetery this morning, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Obamas Attend Church In Washington
The Obamas attended church this morning at the 19th Street Baptist Church, the oldest historically-black church in Washington. A release from the Presidential Inauguration Committee indicated that the Obamas are still looking at various churches in the area, and will settle on a permanent one at a later time.

Polls Give Obama Sky-High Ratings Ahead Of Inauguration
Multiple polls out this morning give Barack Obama some incredibly high approval ratings in the days leading up to his inauguration. A new CBS/New York Times poll has 79% of Americans saying they are optimistic about the next four years with Obama as president, compared to only 16% who are pessimistic; the new CNN poll gives him an 84% approval rating; and the new ABC/Washington Post poll gives him an 80%-15% approval ratings.

Polls Also Show Approval For Obama's Economic Plan
The new CBS/NYT poll shows a 63%-24% approval of Obama's economic plan. The ABC/WaPo poll shows that 72% of Americans are confident that Obama's plan will improve the economy, compared to only 17% who are not confident. And the CNN poll finds 58%-40% approval for increased government spending to stimulate the economy, with support jumping to 71%-28% when the spending is combined with tax cuts.

More Polls: People Don't Like Bush
The new CBS/NYT poll gives George W. Bush an approval rating of only 22%, with a disapproval of 73%. The ABC/WaPo poll gives him a 33%-66% rating. And the CNN poll shows 68% of Americans rating George W. Bush's president as a failure, with only 31% saying it was a success.

Pelosi To Obama: Don't Wait For 2010, Repeal Bush Tax Cuts Sooner
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Nancy Pelosi said that Barack Obama should not wait for the Bush tax cuts on the top-earners to expire, but should instead seek to repeal them ahead of schedule. However, she did add that any discussion on this issue is not part of the economic stimulus plan.

Axelrod Predicts Strong Action From Obama
David Axelrod told CNN that Barack Obama will take diplomatic action "early and aggressively." Said Axelrod: "I think that the events around the world demand that he act quickly, and I think you'll see him act quickly."

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Earlier this week I lamented the conservative House Blue Dogs' ability to command the political spotlight in Washington while the larger Congressional Progressive Caucus seemed to sit on the sidelines. And now we have a sign that the left wing of the Democratic party is ready to flex its muscle.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler's (D-NY) office just mentioned that the Progressives are requesting a meeting with President-elect Obama "to discuss greatly increasing the size" of the economic recovery package. Nadler also rapped the House stimulus bill as too small to truly lift the nation out of recession, signaling a showdown to come over despite the legislation's likely weakening in the Senate.

Nadler's full statement after the jump.

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I'm starting to dig into the differences between House transportation panel chairman Jim Oberstar's $85 billion proposal for infrastructure funding in the stimulus bill (available for download on the right-hand side of the committee page) and the actual final product, released yesterday.

David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington has a chart that tells the tale well. But my first question is: Where did you go, Amtrak Joe?

When the perennially cash-poor train system got a $15 billion authorization signed by George Bush last fall, it represented a big win for Acela-loving Vice President-elect Biden. Now, however, it would seem that Biden's administration has given mass transit the short end of the stick.

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The sheer complexity of the $825 billion economic stimulus bill unveiled in the House yesterday means that it may take some time for stakeholders in the effort to digest the Democrats' spending choices. But the environmental community was on the ball right away, shooting out statements that were sadly little-noticed in the flood of news.

Green advocates mostly like the stimulus, particularly its investment in modernizing the nation's electricity grid and remodeling buildings to promote energy efficiency. But the transportation portion of the bill left several major environmental groups very underwhelmed -- and rightly so.

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Obama Promises Entitlement Reform, Action On Health Care
In an interview with the Washington Post editorial board, Barack Obama promised that his administration will make tough choices on entitlement spending. "Social Security, we can solve," said Obama. "The big problem is Medicare, which is unsustainable...We can't solve Medicare in isolation from the broader problems of the health-care system."

Obama Hitting The Sort-Of Campaign Trail For Stimulus Plan
Barack Obama is holding an event today in the Cleveland suburb of Bedford Heights, Ohio, where he'll be touring a factory that makes parts for wind turbines, in order to promote his economic stimulus plan. His meeting with factory workers to discuss the benefits of his plan is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET.

Biden's Senate Replacement To Be Sworn In Today
Senator-Designate Ted Kaufman (D-DE) is set to be sworn in today as Joe Biden's replacement. A political unknown, Kaufman served as Biden's Senate chief of staff from 1973-1994, and will only serve as a caretaker and not seek a full term in 2010 -- at which time Biden's son Beau is expected to run for the seat.

Steve King: Obama Can Say "Hussein," But I Can't
In an interview with Politico, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) criticized Barack Obama for saying he will use his middle name when he is sworn into office. King says it's a double standard that people on the right are attacked for referring to "Barack Hussein Obama," but Obama can do it himself: "Is that reserved just for him, not his critics?"

Blago Won't Attend Inaugural
Rod Blagojevich's office says he will not be attending Barack Obama's inauguration next week. Under most circumstances, it would be considered unusual for a governor to not attend the inauguration of his state's favorite son as president, but Blago's spokesman said the governor does not want to be a distraction.

With Small Numbers, House GOP Whip No Longer Whipping
The Hill reports that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) is refocusing his job away from counting votes and ensuring party loyalty -- the official job of the whip -- and branching out into formulating policies and a party message. The reason: With only 178 members and having lost the presidency, House Republicans aren't in a position to win many votes.

GOPer Has Big Money For Virginia Gubernatorial Race
The new year-end fundraising reports from the candidates for governor of Virginia show that Republican nominee Bob McDonnell has more than $2 million in cash on hand. In the three-way Democratic primary field, state Sen. Creigh Deeds leads with $891,000, former state Del. Brian Moran has $770,000 on hand, Terry McAuliffe has $718,000 on hand -- an impressive amount, considering Terry only just recently got in the race.

As TPMmuckraker's Zack can attest, the oversight vaccuum for the $700 billion financial bailout has generated a mountain of unanswered questions for journalists and voters. Thankfully, Democrats are setting the bar a lot higher -- hell, they're actually setting a bar -- for the $825 billion stimulus bill they hope to pass next month.

Overseeing the economic recovery spending, House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey (D-WI) said today, will be a seven-person board composed of assistant secretaries and inspectors general of various agencies. Obey described the board's mission as "early warning of funding management problems" as the bill is implemented in states and towns across the country.

Contracts and data on where the stimulusmoney is heading will be posted online (the hypothetical URL "recovery.gov" was mentioned). But the best part of all: Any member of the public who has concerns with a particular element of the spending disbursement can post their questions for the oversight board to investigate.

When can all this wonderful citizen muckraking get started? Well, Obey said Democrats are aiming to mark up the stimulus (that is, add amendments and debate it in committees) next week, followed by floor consideration by the end of the month.

That leaves only the first two weeks in February for the Senate to finish the plan, and iron out differences with the House, before a final vote around Presidents' Day. If that doesn't happen, no vacation for Congress. Good luck, guys.

David Obey (D-WI), the House Appropriations Committee chairman, just met with reporters in his bright corner office to discuss the $825 billion economic stimulus bill that was released today.

The most striking message he had was so subtle that you almost missed it: Democrats have learned from their struggles after the 2006 election, when their failure to press a reversal of Bush's war policy left voters frustrated. This time, Obey wasn't making any promises that the stimulus bill would heal the recession. Not even close.

"You have to look at this bill not as a salvation for the economy by any means," he said. "It's simply the largest effort by any legislative body on the planet to try to take action to prevent economic catastrophe."

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Peter Orszag, the nominee to become Office of Management and Budget chief under Obama, just elaborated a bit on the incoming administration's plans to instill transparency in the contracting process as they implement the economic stimulus bill.

Appearing before the Senate government affairs committee today, Orszag said:

We plan to create a Web site that will contain information about the contracts and include PDFs or contracts themselves, and also financial information about the contracts.

A welcome promise, and one that will surely be a gold mine for us blogger types. Plus, you've gotta love the response from Joe Lieberman (I-CT), chairman of the committee:

Define PDFs.

Barack Obama hasn't been sworn in yet, but he's already hitting the road to promote his economic plan.

The Obama transition team just announced that Obama will traveling on Friday to the Cleveland suburb of Bedford Heights, Ohio. Obama will tour a local factory that makes parts for wind turbines, and will discuss how his plan would help the workers there and others like them by investing in alternative energy.

We might only have one president at a time, as the saying goes. But there's certainly still room for multiple politicians.

I headed down to the Speaker's Hallway, the ornate alcove at the end of Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) office suite, for a scheduled media availability with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on the economic recovery bill. But Pelosi never appeared; instead, a spokesman materialized to answer a few questions. This is part of the culture in the Capitol -- the best laid plans of press folks often go awry, leaving reporters to wait in vain outside meetings that start late and end later.

The Pelosi spokesman did confirm that a two-hour meeting took place with the panoply of House committee chairman involved in crafting the stimulus package: David Obey (D-WI) of Appropriations, James Obserstar (D-MN) of Transportation & Infrastructure, John Spratt (D-SC) of Budget, George Miller (D-CA) of Education & Labor, Henry Waxman (D-CA) of Energy & Commerce, and others.

That's an impressive list of "old bulls," as influential congressional chairman are often dubbed. Since the House is slated to start "marking up" the stimulus bill next week -- voting on amendments to the legislation and sending it to the floor for a final vote -- does that mean each of these chairman will get to hold their own hearings? Looks like that question has yet to be answered.

Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), another senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, just shed some more light on green-energy incentives that could be added to the coming stimulus bill. Stabenow says she's talking with the Obama camp about fully funding the green-collar jobs plan she got (non-bindingly) inserted into last year's budget resolution.

Stabenow already has an impressive 32 fellow Democrats on board with her plan, although the language setting it out the budget resolution is head-scratchingly vague -- a typical feature of the symbolic "reserve funds" that many senators add to budget resolutions with little hope of the provision actually turning into law. Here's the green-collar jobs language, from the final budget:

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Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the No. 3-ranked Senate leader, just told reporters that Obama economic adviser Larry Summers had his third stimulus meeting with Dems in six days -- this one solely with members of the Finance Committee, which will have first crack at the massive legislation.

Schumer was unsurprisingly effusive in his praise for the Obama team's engagement with lawmakers. When I asked about the progress of energy tax benefits reportedly getting added to the stimulus, however, he made a bit of news. "You'll find a mixture" of existing and new alternative energy benefits in the economic recovery plan, Schumer said. The overall amount of tax credits in the bill, he added, are expected to remain at around $300 billion.

John Kerry (D-MA), like Schumer a senior member on Finance, was more specific. He said senators are talking about a "green lending" proposal to direct loans to worthy alternative energy projects -- perhaps along the lines of Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Zach Wamp's (R-TN) plan to set up "green banks."

Kerry predicted a "significant energy component" in the final stimulus, "literally as much [funding] as I can get." In fact, he's inside the Democratic caucus meeting right now making a presentation on creative energy tax proposals.

Obama Meeting Senate Dems Today, Will Press On Bailout
Barack Obama is heading to Capitol Hill today for the weekly lunch of the Senate Democrats, part of his outreach to Capitol Hill. Obama is expected to lobby the Senate Dems on obtaining the authorization for the remaining $350 billion of the Wall St. bailout, and it seems reasonable to expect he'll also work on getting his economic stimulus package approved.

Today: Hillary's Confirmation Hearing
Hillary Clinton will be appearing at 9:30 a.m. ET before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for her confirmation hearing to be Secretary of State, and is expected to easily win confirmation. Hillary will reportedly tell the committee: "I believe American leadership has been wanting, but is still wanted."

Bernanke: Obama Stimulus Would Lift Economy, But Other Reforms Also Needed
Speaking today at the London School of Economics, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that Barack Obama's stimulus plan would give a "significant boost" to the economy. However, he also cautioned that other reforms are needed for the financial system, and that a fiscal stimulus alone isn't likely to produce a lasting recovery.

NYT: Closing Gitmo Will Take A While
The New York Times reports that Barack Obama's plans to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay will face numerous logistical difficulties: "One transition official said the new administration expected that it would take several months to transfer some of the remaining 248 prisoners to other countries, decide how to try suspects and deal with the many other legal challenges posed by closing the camp."

Obama Transition Team: He Looks Forward To Working With Burris
Obama transition team spokesman Dan Pfeiffer released this statement last night, welcoming Roland Burris to Washington: "As the President-elect has said repeatedly, he knows Roland Burris and has high regard for him. He looks forward to working with Senator Burris and the rest of the United States Senate to rebuild our economy and meet the great challenges of our time."

Obama Will Address House GOP In A Few Weeks
The Hill reports that Barack Obama has accepted an invitation to address the House Republican caucus a few weeks after being inaugurated. "We hope this will be the beginning of a positive working relationship with House Republicans at the start of your administration," the GOP leadership wrote in their invitation.

Cheney Writing A Book
Dick Cheney told Sean Hannity yesterday that he's writing a book about his experiences in public services. "I've got 40 years since I came to town to stay 12 months," Cheney said. "I've got a lot of stories to tell. And a few scores to settle."

In response to Friday's post on the political dynamic shaping up in the House over the economic recovery plan, I thought it would help to take a similar look at the Senate. What are the Democratic fault lines that will help determine the cost and the contents of the stimulus bill as the push-and-pull over the package continues?

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No matter what its ultimate cost is, the economic recovery plan that Congress hopes to pass by Presidents' Day is going to be a colossal enterprise. Luckily for Democrats, their 78-seat advantage in the House is one of the largest in the party's recent history -- but challenges still await Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer as they work to line up various factions of the caucus behind the stimulus bill.

Which of the intra-party factions are poised to exert the most influence over the recovery legislation as it takes shape? Here's a handy run-down of the groups in play.

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... though it's not the questionably valuable business tax benefits that are catching the most flak. Before Democrats ducked into a private briefing with Obama's White House economic adviser-in-waiting, Larry Summers, those on the Senate finance committee had a closed-door session to talk shop on the stimulus. They came out decidedly unimpressed by Obama's proposed payroll tax cuts -- which amount to $500 per person, distributed in small amounts over several paychecks.

The Democratic senators were equally doubtful about Obama's proffered $3,000 tax credit to business that hire new workers. As Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), a bellwether centrist, told CNN:

I think it's unlikely to be effective. If you think about it, business people are not going to hire people to produce products that are not selling. Who is going to hire in the auto industry if you give them a $3,000 credit to make cars that people are not buying?

No one's saying this will bring down the bill. In fact, the House ways and means committee is already said to be scheduling drafting sessions. But stepping back to look at the timeframe, the stimulus will still need to be cleared by as many as three committees on each side of the Capitol by the end of Inauguration week, which leaves three more weeks for simultaneous debate in both houses of Congress as well as a conference committee to produce a unified final product.

The old question about deadline pressure still applies.

SEIU president Andy Stern just put out a statement calling for Congress to quickly pass Barack Obama's stimulus package, showing how labor is falling in line to mobilize support for the new president's agenda.

Stern rebuts anyone complaining about the price-tag of the package, pointing out that Congress didn't have too many problems with a different big-spending bill a few months back:

"If Congress needs just three weeks to pass a Wall Street bailout, then we should be able to count on our leaders to pass Main Street relief with as much urgency. Now is the time to make that change that works by getting our economy back on track and building a country where the dreams we have for our families and our children can come true."

Full statement after the jump.

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While Democrats and Barack Obama are hard at work thematically outlining their economic recovery goals, Republicans got down to brass tacks this afternoon. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) signaled pretty strongly that they have a ceiling for an acceptable amount of stimulus spending -- and it ain't a high one.

Obama told CNBC yesterday that his transition is starting at the low end of the possible stimulus spending scale because "our attitude was that given the legislative process, if we start towards the low end of that, we'll see how it develops". Yet McConnell, speaking to reporters in the same ornate Senate room where Democrats unveiled their "top 10" bills yesterday, all but ruled out the trillion-dollar stimulus that some economists and state governments have urged.

Boehner didn't mince words. "An $800 billion to $1 trillion package, on top of the deficit we already have; you're adding an awful lot of weight to the debt," he said, adding: "It's those of us not here" -- the classic GOP touch of referring to future generations inheriting the unpaid bills they helped create -- "who are going to pay the debt."

"You can't buy prosperity with more government spending," Boehner finished.

Even Martin Feldstein thinks you can, congressman.

Late Update: Here's the video:

Barack Obama just finished his big speech on the economy, laying out what he saw as the urgency of passing his stimulus package. It was very much a bully-pulpit sort of affair, laying out general ideas and asking for Americans to come together to support it -- that is, putting pressure on Congress -- rather than laying out hard policy points.

The key point was this section, discussing how the plan will cost a lot of money -- but without specifying any amount -- and saying that large-scale government intervention has become necessary: "It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short-term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes, and confidence in our economy."

Obama put the blame for the current crisis on "profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington, DC," citing the lack of a proper regulatory structure that allowed easy credit to circulate with no attention to what would happen when all those loans came due. Obama's message, in short: I'm inheriting this mess, and now we have to fix it.

As for his own plan, Obama reiterated much of what we've heard before: modernizing government buildings, more computers for schools, and the revamping of the country's energy grid, etc. There was no mention of the large business tax cuts that had been reported in the last few days -- probably not the best thing to get on a soapbox about while also lambasting corporate irresponsibility -- with a $1,000 middle-class tax cut for families being the only tax break mentioned.

So again, this was not so much a policy speech as much as it was a political speech, focused on convincing people that his big plan -- whatever it might look like by the time we're done -- has to be passed.

As the president-elect prepares to expand upon his economic recovery proposal today, it's worth digging deeper into one of the business tax cuts that's said to be a done deal for the package.

Its name is not often used in press coverage -- it's described as "a measure that would allow companies to deduct large portions of recent losses" from their taxes by the Post -- but its full name is the "net operating loss carryback". And it's a pretty nice score for the housing industry from the Obama team.

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On the first day after any congressional recess, the mood in Washington tends to be genial and relaxed, with reporters and aides swapping more vacation stories than legislative strategies. But today was different. The souring economy focused intense attention on the closed-door meetings that Barack Obama conducted with lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol.

After Obama emerged for his second public availability of the day, taking no questions, both Democratic and Republican leaders emerged to put their spin on what transpired. And while Harry Reid referred to the need for an economic recovery bill costing between $800 billion and $1.2 trillion, Mitch McConnell mentioned only one number: 40%, the share of the package that the Obama camp has said would go toward tax cuts.

But during the leaders' meeting with Obama, McConnell said, "there was no discussion about the overall size of the package. I don't think it's been determined."

The tactic is one familiar to savvy members of Congress: If they can delay public agreement on an issue, they win more time to shape it to their liking. The longer Republicans delay in accepting the size of the bill, the greater chance they have of shrinking it.

For now it appears that Obama's team is unruffled by the numbers game taking place. On Wednesday, when the House Democratic steering committee holds its first public forum on the recovery package, we'll be listening to see whether Republicans are finally ready to reveal the price tag they can live with -- and whether the new administration is ready to agree.

In six weeks, anyone want to bet that Republicans profess their alarm at the Democrats' hijacking of the process to promote profligate government spending?

Late Update: Here's the video of McConnell's remarks: