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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/us/politics/06stimulus.html?emc=eta1

WASHINGTON — Two weeks before assuming power, President-elect Barack Obama took his economic recovery package to Capitol Hill on Monday and worked to build a bipartisan coalition to endorse his plan of tax cuts and new spending with an urgent appeal “to break the momentum of this recession.”

Mr. Obama, on his first full day in Washington since the election, held a series of face-to-face meetings with Democrats and Republicans as he began spending his political capital. He spoke of the nation’s economic condition in dark terms and urged Congress to pass the legislation within a month.

“Right now, the most important task for us is to stabilize the patient,” Mr. Obama said. “The economy is badly damaged — it is very sick. So we have to take whatever steps are required to make sure that it is stabilized.”

The meetings were a mix of symbolism and substance between the man who will be sworn in as the 44th president and the Congressional leaders who hold the fate of his agenda in their hands. The sessions, aides said, were particularly aimed at encouraging Republicans to buy into the plan and help ease resistance over a $775 billion price tag.

Mr. Obama pledged to help advance the legislation in any way he could, participants said, including inviting skeptical members of Congress to meet with him at his transition headquarters or at his temporary residence, the Hay-Adams Hotel.

“This is not a Republican problem or a Democratic problem at this stage,” Mr. Obama said Monday afternoon. “It is an American problem, and we’re going to all have to chip in and do what the American people expect.”

After meeting for about an hour in the Lyndon B. Johnson Room near the Senate chamber, Congressional leaders said they expected a bipartisan effort to approve the economic stimulus package by early February. Lawmakers said they were waiting for Mr. Obama to present a written proposal — perhaps even draft legislation — within days. Various House and Senate committees would fill out the details.

For Mr. Obama, it was his first return to the Capitol since he was elected on Nov. 4, and another reminder of how rapid his ascent has been. Four years after he took his first steps into the building, arriving as a freshman senator from Illinois, he swept in Monday under the cover of considerable security, with some roads barricaded outside the building and corridors inside closed off to accommodate his movements. At one point, large groups of tourists were forced to linger in the Rotunda to wait for Mr. Obama to leave his morning meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The president-elect returned to the Capitol in the afternoon for a meeting with Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader. He then proceeded past a huge crowd of photographers to the meeting with House and Senate leaders from both parties.

Mr. Obama listened as Republicans raised concerns about waste and transparency in the economic stimulus plan. He agreed with a suggestion raised by Representative Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, about putting the entire contents of the legislation online in a user-friendly way to see how the money is being spent.

But participants in the private meetings said there did not seem to be agreement on the scale of the package. Mr. Reid said many economists have urged a bill of $800 billion to $1.2 trillion, while Mr. Obama’s advisers estimated legislation at no more than $775 billion.

The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, said he was concerned about the overall size of the stimulus package. He said the American public was rightly agitated by the lack of accountability in the bailout bills that were abruptly approved last fall.

“While we want to get the economy moving again,” Mr. Boehner said, “the overall size and how we craft this is going to be very important.”

Still, Republicans praised Mr. Obama’s willingness to hear their ideas, which is something they have often felt did not take place under President Bush. They urged Mr. Obama to use the stimulus bill to provide a substantial tax cut to middle-class families and small businesses, but also pressed him to ensure that the legislative process would be fair to the diminished Republican minorities in both chambers.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, also said he encouraged Mr. Obama to consider providing aid to states in the form of loans that would have to be repaid, as a means of preventing wasteful spending.

“I thought the atmosphere for bipartisan cooperation was sincere on all sides,” Mr. McConnell said after the meeting. The legislation, which Mr. Obama and his economic advisers discussed Monday, includes about $300 billion in tax cuts for workers and businesses. A part of the plan that was a centerpiece of the presidential campaign would provide credits of up to $500 for most workers at an overall price of $150 billion. The plan also includes more than $100 billion in tax incentives for business to create jobs and invest in factories and equipment.

The series of meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill highlighted the fact that the new president is coming from their own ranks, for the first time since John F. Kennedy.

Mr. Reid, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said lawmakers were committed to adopting the economic plan as quickly as possible. But Congressional Democrats and the Obama transition team have pushed back their timetable, which originally called for the legislation to be ready for Mr. Obama to sign on the day of his inauguration. Instead, they said their goal was to have the bill completed no later than mid-February.

Ms. Pelosi, who met with Mr. Obama twice on Monday, said that the stimulus bill would be taken up first in the House and that there was agreement to move swiftly.

“I won’t make any announcement about how soon, but we all know what our tasks are,” Ms. Pelosi said. “We know what the time constraints are. They are dictated by the sense of urgency that the American people have about their economic well-being.”

At one of their meetings, .Mr. Obama and Ms. Pelosi discussed a plan to push forward quickly with a bill to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, an effort that President Bush has blocked. Democrats had considered including additional money for the program, which provides medical coverage for low-income children and families, in the stimulus measure. As the stimulus plan began to take shape, the search intensified for a new commerce secretary, one day after Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico withdrew from consideration for the position. Democratic officials familiar with the search said prospective candidates include William Daley, who served as commerce secretary in the Clinton administration, and Laura Tyson, who has advised Mr. Obama on the economy.