Obama Working the Phones on TARP

January 14, 2009 7:02 PM

ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports: In another sign of how tough this vote may be, President-elect Obama has been working the phones today urging wavering Democrats and moderate Republicans to support releasing the second $350 billion of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, told ABC News Obama called her this morning and urged her to vote against a measure that would block release of the money.

Snowe summed up Obama's message this way: "He needs the funding to address the grave circumstances the country is facing and he needs bi-partisan support."

She said the president-elect also promised the second $350 billion would be spent in a more responsible way and with greater transparency than the first $350 billion in TARP money.

Obama's assurances seem to have had an affect on Snowe. She said she is inclined to vote against the resolution blocking the funds.

A vote on the resolution could come Thursday or Friday.

A senior Democratic leadership aide says Obama made several calls to Democratic senators today, as well.

Meanwhile, top Obama economic advisor Larry Summers and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met for more than an hour with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill this afternoon.

After the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made it clear most Republicans still are not convinced.

McConnell blamed the Bush administration for undermining Republican support for the TARP program by using it to bail out the automakers.

"We are looking for assurance on how the second tranche of TARP will be used," McConnell told reporters after the meeting with Summers and Emanuel.

The TARP program was intended to free up the credit markets, he said, not as an "industrial policy" that picks winners and losers among individual industries.

Democratic vote counters tell ABC News that about a dozen Democrats likely will vote for the resolution blocking the funds. That means the Obama team, at minimum, will need the support of four or five Republicans, and it is trying to get more than that as a demonstration of bi-partisan support.