Opinion: Is Obama’s $900-billion stimulus package in trouble?

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President Obama said today that Americans are bearing the brunt of an economic crisis that was years in the making. With millions out of work and job fairs like the one pictured above in New York overrun with applicants, Obama warned Congress that a failure to act on his $900-billion stimulus package will “turn a crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession.”

Amid criticism of the package, Obama said ‘No plan is perfect.’

But there are growing signs that the mega-package of spending programs and tax cuts -- envisioned by a new White House as the first step in its economic leadership to rescue the economy -- may be in trouble.

For one thing, Democrats concede that even though they hold a 58-41 edge in the Senate, they don’t have the votes to pass the bill. The Washington Post reported that they are scurrying to cut $200 billion from the price tag. In one sign of the growing disaffection, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, in his first e-mail to supporters since losing the election in November, urged them to oppose the bill.

For another, a new poll from Rasmussen suggests that public support is falling. In its latest telephone survey, the pollster found that only 37% now support the plan. And that half the public believes that the bill may do more harm than good.

Finally, there’s conservative talk radio, stirring up the troops and encouraging them to call and e-mail the Senate, where phones are ringing off the hook and the Capitol switchboard ([202] 224-3121) is often busy.

Talk show host Laura Ingraham, on the NBC ‘Today’ show this morning, said that the Obama administration was trying to sell the public ‘a bill of goods’ and that ‘day after day support from the public’ was deteriorating. ‘That’s why I think the politicians want to rush this through,’ she said.

The administration too seems to sense the danger. Obama is talking to Republican senators individually to win their support. And the White House is hosting governors like Vermont’s Republican Jim Douglas and mayors like Antonio Villaraigosa, who make the case that states and cities are desperate for the stimulus spending programs in the package.

-- Johanna Neuman