Media Stakeout with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) Subject: The Economy

Statement

Media Stakeout with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
Subject: The Economy

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SEN. MCCONNELL: Good afternoon, everyone. Here we are at the beginning of the second session of the 110th Congress, and I think the way forward is to replicate what was achieved at the end of last year. Finally in December it became apparent, I think, to the majority that in order to actually have accomplishments, we need to meet in the middle and cooperate and get bills to the president that he would actually sign.

There is some evidence here at the beginning of the next session that that lesson learned in December may actually carry over into January. And as we begin this session, we've had -- Leader Boehner and I have had several constructive discussions with Senator Reid and the speaker and the secretary of the Treasury about getting a package that can help stimulate this economy, and getting that package sometime soon.

We also reached agreement that it will start first on the House side. And with that, let me turn to Leader Boehner.

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Q Are Republicans on the same page? Senator Gregg took to the floor today and had some problems with this. He was concerned about deficits. He said it might be a little bit too late. What's your response to that?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, we don't have a package yet. As I indicated, I think the starting place will be for the -- for Leader Boehner and the speaker and the Treasury secretary to come together behind some kind of package that's likely to move first in the House.

That's the way it works under our system.

In our conference, we're going to be briefed by the secretary of the Treasury tomorrow to get a sense of what he may have in mind. I think there is pretty broad agreement that the size of the package would be roughly 1 percent of the gross domestic product. Beyond that, I think it's all yet to be negotiated.

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