[Heidi Collins, Cnn Anchor:] Seeking support for his stimulus plan. President Obama reaches out to Republicans today and we are live on Capitol Hill. And winter's long arm. Storm stretches from Texas to New England. We'll tell you who is getting snow and who is getting the ice. It is Tuesday, January 27th. I'm Heidi Collins. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. President Obama heads to the Hill. He'll lobby Republicans who are increasingly squeamish about his massive stimulus plan. The White House says he'll also listen to their wish lists more tax cuts and less spending. Day eight of the Obama administration and the new president is stressing urgency to halt the economy's tailspin. Just after his noon arrival, President Obama will meet with Republican leaders in the House and then the next hour, he meets with their counterparts in the Senate. And then, questions and answers. The White House holds its daily briefing with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. CNN correspondents are, of course, in place to bring you all of the angles of the story. In fact, Christine Romans will break down the stimulus plan. What does your $825 billion actually buy and Suzanne Malveaux has the view from the White House. So let's go ahead and begin there. Good morning to you, Suzanne.
[Suzanne Malveaux, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Good morning, Heidi. Well, President Obama has done this before. You might recall that the bailout plan, that package, $700 billion, he quietly reached out to House Republicans and ended up getting some support along the way. That is certainly what he is hoping today to actually go to their home turf on the Hill to meet with Senate Republicans, as well as House Republicans, and aides are saying what he is doing here is he's trying to give them a little leeway here. Obviously, they what they believe that they're going to get the stimulus package either way, Democrats on both sides. The chambers are going to give him what he wants but he wants more than that. He wants Republicans to come on board here, a real bipartisan effort to show that there is some support. So what are they willing to give up? Well, Obama aides say that he is quietly talking to Democrats about what Republicans are complaining about, that this is too big, $825 billion, there's not enough tax cuts and that potentially some of this money is not going to create jobs, which is the big goal here. And so one of the things that Democrats are looking at, at possibly taking out of the legislation is that $200 million for contraceptives, for family planning, for poor for families.
[Collins:] Right.
[Malveaux:] That might be taken out. Another thing that we're going to see today as well that Barack Obama is offering the Republicans is take a look at what my Treasury secretary is doing, Tim Geithner. One of his first acts as Treasury secretary is lay down some new rules when it comes to special interest impact, lobbyist impact, on who gets the bailout money and where that money goes. So these are the kinds of things that he is going to be talking about with Republicans making sure that they understand what he is willing to offer Heidi?
[Collins:] Sure. Just curious, Suzanne, if there is any indication as to where that $200 million that would have possibly gone for the contraceptives, it was taken out where it could go, where it would reallocated?
[Malveaux:] No sense of where that actually is going to go. But what the Republicans want is they actually want to shrink the size of the economic stimulus package. They don't, they don't think $825 billion is really a reasonable figure. And they also want more accountability. So the kinds of questions that Republicans are going to be asking the president is what can you take out of this? They're looking at renovation projects for the mall, money for the National Endowment, for the arts. These kinds of things that they want pulled out of that bill Heidi?
[Collins:] All right. Understood. We will be watching closely alongside you. Suzanne Malveaux, live from the White House this morning. Thanks, Suzanne.
[Malveaux:] Thanks.
[Collins:] And as you know, it is the morning after bloody Monday. More than 71,000 job cuts were announced just yesterday, as companies continue struggling with the economy. Today, more American families are hit. Corning which makes the glass used in flat screen TVs says it will eliminate about 13 percent of its jobs by the end of the year. That is some 3,500 workers losing their paychecks. The company also slashing more than 1,400 temporary jobs. Jobs, the lifeblood, of course, of the economy and a big focus of the Obama stimulus plan. So here to give us some specifics now is CNN's Christine Romans. And good morning to you, Christine.
[Christine Romans, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Heidi. And Weyerhaeuser, there are forest product company laying off some 220 workers, we've just heard, and closing a couple of mills. Current extraordinarily weak market conditions is the kind of language you're hearing from CEOs and, frankly, from the president of the United States. The president yesterday standing up and ticking off company by company who were laying off workers. It's very rare to see a president up there singling out companies with layoffs but he was using it as another reason why we need to pass his stimulus. A lot of critics, though, would point out that passing the stimulus right away, of course, wouldn't reverse these job losses. But stopping the bleeding is what they are looking to do. So what is in it? It's 600-plus pages of stimulus, of tax cuts and spending, all kinds of different things in there. What's in it? Well, they're trying to create jobs, some three million to four million jobs. That's a big part of this stimulus. Tax cuts is one way to do that, infrastructure spending, education, some 142 billion dollars in education spending, and health care, $20 billion for high tech modernization of health care records, and also $87 billion for Medicaid and some other things. Now, the jobs component of this, it would come, in part, from those tax cuts and all of that spending and some specific jobs programs. The Obama administration, the White House says they hope to create 678,000 construction jobs, an awful lot of manufacturing and retail jobs, educationhealth, tourism, government, others in here, too. I mean mining jobs, all kinds of different things that they're hoping to do three million to four million jobs over the course of the next couple of years. Now Suzanne pointed out some of those things that the Republicans and opponents of the bill are really, really concerned about, spending that they say doesn't necessarily stimulate the economy. There's a great debate right now...
[Collins:] Yes.
[Romans:] ... among economists of all stripes and nonpartisan academic economists who are saying, you know, we don't know exactly what the right mix is, but this is a very, very, very big, big spending plan and they want to get it through with as little pork as possible and with as much actually stimulative spending as they can. There's going to be a great deal of debate about what that mix really is and I don't know if anybody I don't know if everybody can be happy in the end, Heidi.
[Collins:] Yes, very, very likely not going to be even remotely possible but got to find something, that's for sure. CNN's Christine Romans, sure do appreciate that.
[Romans:] Sure.
[Collins:] And also, want to let you know we're going to be talking a lot more about this today. Will the stimulus package become a done deal? If so will it actually do what it is supposed to? A business expert is going to be joining us to give us some of his best guesses in just a few minutes. The Obama administration has a new Cabinet member today. Timothy Geithner took his oath last night as secretary of the treasury. The Senate confirmed him despite concerns that he initially failed to pay his payroll taxes and Geithner says he'll waste no time in confronting the nation's growing financial crisis.
[Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary:] In the world we confront today, Treasury has to be and Treasury will be a source of bold initiative. We are at a moment of maximum challenge for our economy and for our country. And our agenda, Mr. President, is to move quickly to help you do what the country asks you to do to launch the programs that will bring economic recovery sooner, to make our economy more productive and more just in the opportunities it provides our citizens, to restore trust in our financial system with fundamental reform, to make our tax system better at rewarding work and investment, to restore confidence in America's economic leadership around the world. I pledge all of my ability to help you meet that challenge and to restore to all Americans the promise of a better future.
[Collins:] Some time today, Geithner is expected to unveil new lobbying rules as well. The goal, limiting the effects of special interest groups on the government's financial rescue plan. As you know Wall Street opens at the bottom of the hour. And it may be big day for buyers. Early signs pointing out to a positive start. Overseas markets are mixed. Japan's Nikkei surged nearly 5 percent overnight and trading in Europe has been down slightly throughout the morning. So we'll keep our eye on those numbers as well. Slow down. A winter storm making driving containing dangerous in parts of the Midwest and the south. The storm is being blamed for at least five traffic deaths and thousands of power outages. Many school districts and colleges have canceled classes for today. Oklahoma's governor has called a state of emergency due to icing conditions. Getting to be a very serious situation in lots of parts of the country, Rob.
[Rob Marciano, Ams Meteorologist:] That's a peaceful sight except if you're trying to get around the White House and the Capitol building. Obviously white buildings and you got he white on top of that. It just looks very clean there.
[Collins:] It does, for now, until it starts to turn around...
[Marciano:] We'll continue right through tonight. Here's the accumulation, by the way, Heidi. The heaviest amounts, as is typical, will be away from the bigger cities but D.C. to Philly, even New York, could see several inches of snow before it's all done.
[Collins:] All right. Everybody's got to be careful. Rob, thank you. We will get an update later on in the show.
[Marciano:] Sounds good.
[Collins:] Appreciate it.
[Marciano:] All right.
[Collins:] And speaking of weather, we're not sure quite yet if this is weather-related, but look at that. A FedEx plane crashed at the Lubbock, Texas airport this morning. Two crew members on the plane, both of them, walked off and are believed to have minor injuries. These are live pictures for you now coming in from our affiliate KLBK. No word on why the plane went off the runway, but part of it did catch on fire. Of course, as you can probably even tell from those pictures, there's been quite a bit of ice in the Lubbock area today. His first formal TV interview. President Barack Obama skips the U.S. networks, directing his message overseas to the Muslim world.