McConnell on Fox & Friends Regarding Stimulus Package

National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW): Points Forward
Political Talking Points, Received January 26, 2008 via email

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on Fox News program "Fox and Friends" Monday morning. The following are excerpts from the program:

On A Stimulus Package:
"..I think most of my members believe if you put money straight in the hands of individuals and businesses that will have a quicker stimulative effect than having the government spend it on projects, particularly ones that are likely to spend out in year three and year four."

On Republican Stimulus Proposals:
"We've been offering suggestions. If you want a quick answer to the question what would I do, I'd have a payroll tax holiday for a year or two. That would put taxes in the hands of everybody who has a job whether they pay income taxes or not. And, of course, businesses pay the payroll tax too, so it would be both a business tax cut and individual tax cut immediately. Number two, I would make the money to states a loan rather than a grant. Otherwise you're going to see a lot of mob museums and water slides. Everybody at the state level has been making their list and checking it twice, and we're going to end up with some very embarrassing expenditures."

On The Democrats' Trillion Dollar Spending Bill:
"Well the way it's looking in the House at least, a number of things bother me about it. I think it's probably going to fall well short of the mark of what the Speaker just said a year ago, the principle that ought to apply to stimulus, temporary, timely, targeted. A lot of this is going to spend out over a very lengthy period of time and not have much of an impact in the short term."

"I want to be open minded about it because we haven't actually drafted it in the Senate yet. I think the house package looks pretty bad."

On the President's Stimulus Proposal:
"We're looking at the substance of this, and at least the substance, as defined by the Congressional Democrats at the moment, seems to fall well short of what a stimulus package ought to be."

On The President's Desire for Republican Support on the Stimulus:
"Well I think the President would like to govern from the center. The question is whether the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate will let him. They have majorities in both the House and Senate. They're going to pull him to the left.

On The Democrats Saying The Economy Will Get Worse Before It Gets Better:
"Well I think there's a political goal there which is to make any kind of improvement, no matter how marginal, appreciated. And to make it look like the new administration got it done. It's a little bit like the rooster taking credit for the dawn. At some point this is going to get over with, and the issue in the short term is can we, the government, do something effective to help make that shorter?"