President-elect Barack Obama is calling for tax cuts to be a large portion of an economic stimulus plan.

Obama is asking that tax cuts make up 40 percent of a stimulus package, the people say. The measure may be worth as much as $775 billion, a Democratic aide says, meaning tax cuts may constitute more than $300 billion of the legislation.

Making tax cuts such a large part of the stimulus may help win support from congressional Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said his party would support an immediate middle-class tax cut as part of any stimulus package.

“Republicans, by and large, think tax relief is a great way to get money to people immediately,” McConnell said yesterday on ABC’s “This Week.”

As always, the devil is in the details, and I, for one, will be curious to see what those details are. Still, tax cuts are a good thing, and part of this plan sounds very similar to Rep. Gohmert’s plan. From the Bloomberg article:

The plan would attempt to boost consumer demand by spending $140 billion on tax breaks worth $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples, according to a House Democratic aide. The change would come by altering tax-withholding rules, rather than through a rebate check as with the previous stimulus plan enacted last year, so that workers would see an immediate increase in their take-home pay.

The $500 tax credit would apply to the first $8,100 of wages, meaning a worker who earns $24,400 a year and is paid twice a month would get about $60 extra per paycheck for four months.

The Gohmert plan calls for, “the suspension of employment and income taxes during the first two months of 2009.” (H.R. 7309)

As I said, we will have to wait and see the final plan, but including tax breaks is a good place to start.