U.S. President-elect Barack Obama went to the U.S. Capitol today to press for swift passage of a huge spending and tax-cut package amid signs his centerpiece economic stimulus plan may face delays, Reuters reported. "The reason we're here today is because the people's business can't wait," Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, told reporters at a start of a meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. "We've got an extraordinary economic challenge ahead of us," Obama said. "We're expecting a sobering job report at the end of the week." The current U.S. recession began in December 2007 and, according to a Reuters poll, economists are expecting Labor Department data on Friday to show payroll jobs dropping by 500,000, bringing job losses for 2008 to about 2.5 million. Obama's first visit to the Capitol since the Nov. 4 election came on the eve of the opening of the new Congress where passage of a recession-fighting stimulus package, expected to cost about $775 billion over two years, will be the top initial objective. Obama's fellow Democrats had hoped to have such a package ready for the new president to sign as soon as he takes office in two weeks.
