United States President-elect Barack Obama is calling for bipartisan cooperation in quickly passing his economic stimulus package that Democrats say will include an unexpectedly large tax cut of up to US$300 billion.

Ahead of meetings with lawmakers, Obama said, "The situation is getting worse and we have to act boldly and we have to act swiftly.

"This is not a Republican problem or a Democratic problem at this stage. It is an American problem and we're going to all have to chip in and do what the American people expect."

Economic plan

The president-elect spoke after meeting with his economic advisers and before meeting with both Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill who will be charged with passing his economic plan that could cost as much as US$800 billion.

Obama's economic recovery plan depends on swiftly pumping hundreds of billions of federal dollars into the economy to create jobs.

The focus is on tax cuts and government spending that can provide an immediate lift to the economy.

However, the plan emerging in talks between Obama's team and Democratic allies in Congress also appears to contain lots of money that will not be spent for years - like for water projects, rebuilding the electric grid and buying billions of dollars of computers and software for the health-care sector.

Much of that money won't get spent until the economy starts growing again.

Republican critics

Some Republican critics say Democrats are simply using the current economic crisis to put money into long-term projects now, rather than in a few years when concerns about record budget deficits might threaten the spending.

"We must ... make distinctions between what is 'stimulus' ... and what is merely more government spending on favoured projects we don't need with money we don't have," said Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

One example is a plan to spend billions of dollars on a new health-care information technology system that would make the delivery of health care safer, more effective and more efficient.

During the campaign, Obama promised US$50 billion over five years for the initiative. The upcoming economic recovery bill will provide less.

Even so, little of the programme can get under way quickly and building the system is years away. Basic questions like privacy rights and a design that would allow computers for doctors, hospitals and insurance companies to interact have yet to be resolved.

Even Obama's economic advisers have warned privately that as the stimulus bill increases in size, its quality inevitably declines. The economy can absorb only so much public investment over the next two years. Republicans are even more sceptical.

- AP