Barack Obama, Obama and the Republicans

OBAMA FOR USA. President Obama came to office pledging to end the partisan bitterness that he saw as dominating Washington. On his first major initiative, the stimulus package, he met repeatedly with members of Congress of both parties, a charm offensive that extended to a bipartisan Super Bowl party. Republicans said that they appreciated the gesture but continued to disagree with the president's policies, and complained that their ideas were being ignored. Mr. Obama's aides countered that he had adopted a string of Republican suggestions, including a plan to use $70 billion to extend protection to middle-class families that would otherwise have been hit by the alternative-minimum tax. In the end, every Republican member of the House and all but three in the Senate voted against the stimulus bill.

After Mr. Obama introduced his $3.5 billion budget in February, many Republicans began to focus their message on what they called out-of-control spending, and the gigantic deficits it would create.

On April 1, in response to Democratic ridicule about the absence of an alternative to Mr. Obama's budget proposal, House Republicans offered a budget vision sharply at odds with the president's plan, calling for sweeping tax cuts, major changes in Medicare and a suspension of the economic stimulus program.

The Republican plan would also freeze most domestic spending for five years, increase Pentagon spending, permanently extend the Bush-era tax breaks and eliminate any taxes on successful investments in 2010 as a way to spur the economy. Republicans said they would spend $4.8 trillion less than Democrats over 10 years.

Under the Republican plan, Americans would also be offered a choice of staying under the current income tax system with its opportunities for claiming deductions or file under a new, simplified system. Families could choose to pay 10 percent on their adjusted gross income of up to $100,000 and 25 percent on income above that level.

Even with the spending reductions and other changes proposed by the Republicans, their plan would still leave annual deficits of about $500 billion, not much lower than the Democratic plans -- a fact that Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, said reflected the country's dire economic situation. Republicans said their approach was far preferable to Democratic plans since it put less of a burden on present and future taxpayers.

The Democratic National Committee has created a Web site to celebrate what it is calling the "100 Days of No." It chronicles the unified Republican opposition in Congress to the president's budget, the $787 billion stimulus package and other measures, like the expansion of children's health insurance.