THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama's hopes of a new dawn of bipartisan co-operation in Washington have been shaken by fierce Republican opposition to his £600 billion economic stimulus plan.
Senior Republicans attacked the $825 billion package as too big and laden with pet projects that will do nothing to lift the US out of recession in the short term.
Hovering over their discontent is a growing feeling among conservatives that Mr Obama's inauguration speech, a strong disavowal of the outgoing President George W. Bush as he sat listening, was unnecessarily harsh on his predecessor.
Representative John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House, is understood to be one of those most upset about the tone of the speech.
Having previously vouched for Mr Obama's desire to reach across the aisle, the Republican has adopted a harsher tone since Tuesday's inauguration.
"We believe that spending nearly a trillion dollars is really more than what we ought to be putting on the backs of our kids and their kids, because at the end of the day, this is not our money to spend. We're borrowing this money from our kids," Mr Boehner said after a meeting with Mr Obama.
He added: "How you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives. How does that stimulate the economy? You can go through a whole host of issues in this bill that have nothing to do with growing jobs in America and helping people keep their jobs." >>> By Toby Harnden in Washington | Friday, January 23, 2009
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