Press Conference With Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Press Conference
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SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, happy new year, everyone. Welcome back to the Capitol.
As you know, we just had an opportunity to have a bipartisan leadership meeting with the president-elect. I thought the atmosphere for bipartisan cooperation was sincere on all sides. We welcome the opportunity to be included in the discussion.
I'm convinced, as a result of listening to the president-elect, that he is interested in what Republican ideas might be offered to the stimulus package that we anticipate him unveiling in the next few days. We do have ideas, and let me suggest a couple of them.
Number one, I think there will be widespread Republican enthusiasm for having a significant percentage of the package be tax relief. The best way to stimulate the economy obviously is to put money directly in the pockets of taxpayers. We'll be interested to see not only the size of the tax package but how it's crafted. But with regard to the principle of having a significant portion of the package be tax relief that speeds dollars into the hands of taxpayers, I think there's likely to be widespread Republican enthusiasm for that portion of it.
With regard to the spending part of it, one idea that I've suggested that I would hope they would take a look at -- having gone through the financial rescue package debate a couple of months ago, I know that there's a good deal of discussion about whether it worked and whether it didn't and what were the shortcomings of it. What we do know is that at least so far, it's all a loan. In other words, it holds out the possibility that the federal government can actually recoup the money that was lent to the financial institutions.
We would like, on the spending side, obviously to avoid funding things like mob museums or water slides. And one thing that might help prevent that would be if the assistance to the states were along the same line and with the same kinds of terms that we provided assistance to financial institutions: 5 percent -- a loan at 5 percent over five years and then 9 percent beyond that. I think that's certainly worth taking a look at. I think the states that did take advantage of the loans would be very careful about how they spent the money.
So those are a couple of examples of ideas that were -- that I raised in the meeting and that I hope they'll take a look at.
Now let me just conclude before handing it over to Leader Boehner that I think I can speak for virtually all Senate Republicans that we would like to participate in the forming of this -- the formulation of the package. We would like to offer our ideas. And finally, I think, to the extent that it passes with a very large vote, it'll have more credibility with the American people; and the way it's likely to pass with a very large vote is to have significant Republican participation.
John?
REP. BOEHNER: Well, Mitch, thanks.
We look forward to working with President-elect Obama and our Democrat colleagues to help get our economy moving again and help our constituents. I think we're glad that the president-elect believes that tax cuts are, in fact, stimulative and will, in fact, help get our economy moving.
The president-elect also agreed that we ought to have transparency in this process; that -- that members ought to be able to offer amendments and people ought to see what this bill is, because I think, at the end of the day, that the more people know about the bill that we're going to move through here over the next six weeks, the more supportive they can be.
But overall we're a little -- I'm a little concerned myself about the overall size of the package. This is not a package that's ever going to be paid for by the current generation. It's going to be paid for by our kids and grandkids. And so while we want to get the economy moving again, the overall size and how we craft this is going to be very important.
But I thought the tone of the meeting went well, and look forward to working with the president -- the new president and his team.
SEN. MCCONNELL: All right. Eric -- Eric? Go ahead.
REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA): Just -- I think that the meeting we just came out of was a candid meeting. There's no question that all in the room, on both sides of the aisle, both sides of the Capitol, are intent on trying to do all we can to preserve, protect and create jobs. And after all, that's what a stimulus bill is.
And I know that I join with my colleagues here in saying that we hope that the president-elect moves forward, along with Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid, in good faith, and we can see a bill come forward that does not have waste and earmark and pork-barrel spending, and that we can see some real tax relief for small businesses, because that's the way we'll get this economy back on track.
Q Leader?
SEN. MCCONNELL (?): Questions?
Q Leader McConnell?
Q Did you feel, the $300 billion that's been discussed of the -- in tax reliefs the size and type of tax relief you're looking for? Is the total package of $1.2 trillion too high to you, Mr. Leader -- Mr. McConnell?
SEN. MCCONNELL: There was no discussion about the overall size of the package. I don't think it's been determined. I think there's been -- there was some indication that about 40 percent of it, of the package, was being looked at in terms of tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses. But we've not seen the details of it. But clearly it's an area that brings excitement to Republicans because it does put money in the economy right away.
Q Leader McConnell? Leader McConnell, Senator Reid just said that the race between Senator Coleman and Mr. Franken is over and that Mr. Franken has won. What's your reaction?
SEN. MCCONNELL: Yeah, the race in Minnesota is not over. Under Minnesota law, an election certificate does not issue until litigation has been concluded. And it's my understanding that a lawsuit will be filed -- if not today, sometime very soon -- contesting the -- certain aspects of the counting. So I think it is safe to say that the election in Minnesota has not yet been determined. I think it is also safe to say that it needs to be decided in Minnesota and not in the United States Senate.
Q Mr. Leader, in terms of the tax cuts that you talked about here, as you know, a lot of pieces of legislation go to die in the Senate sometimes because of the filibuster and cloture situation. I mean, is that so critical because if you're able to bring over a certain number of Republicans, that that could move this bill through, and the tax cuts is the sweetener here?
SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, I hate to speak for the new president, but I think he would like to have a large bipartisan vote in favor of this package. And he knows, even before we mentioned it, that the way to do that is obviously for it to have elements that are appealing to Republicans and for there to be Republican participation. He understands that. And I think this bill is going to start out -- and hopefully, end -- in a very -- as an example of very significant bipartisan cooperation.
Q (Off mike) -- along those lines, hearings, markups, anything concrete?
SEN. MCCONNELL: We didn't get down into the weeds of exactly the procedure for moving forward.
Q (Off mike.)
REP. BOEHNER: I do.
Q You do. You don't know yet what will come out, but you do expect there will be a bill in six weeks.
REP. BOEHNER: I do. I do.
Q Senator McConnell, if the Democrats try to seat Al Franken this week, what will you do?
SEN. MCCONNELL: I'm not going to respond to a hypothetical. But let me just, at the risk of boring you, tell you the race in Minnesota is not over until the people in Minnesota say it's over. And the way you say it's over in Minnesota is somebody shows up here with an election certificate. It's my understanding that isn't going to happen tomorrow.
Q Mr. Boehner --
Q Senator McConnell --
SEN. MCCONNELL: Emily?
Q Could you please bore me with what you would do if they tried to seat him? Like --
SEN. MCCONNELL: I'm not going to answer any hypotheticals. It's well established in the Senate that the way you get sworn in, the way you get seated is to show up with an election certificate. And that is determined under Minnesota law. And under Minnesota law, an election certificate does not issue until the litigation has been concluded. And it is my understanding that litigation is commencing, if not today, in the very near future.
Q Senator McConnell, did you bring up your idea about loaning money to the states? And what was President-elect Obama's response to that? How would you characterize his response?
SEN. MCCONNELL: Oh, I think he can speak for himself. My recollection is he didn't have any particular response to any of our suggestions. That does not mean he wasn't listening. You know, I think he's already been listening to the suggestions we've made.
If you look at press descriptions that some of you have written about what you think the current proposal looks like, it's different from what it looked like a week or 10 days ago, and the differentness so far has been the dramatically, apparently, expanding portion of this that will be devoted to tax relief. That clearly is appealing to virtually all Republicans, from Maine to Mississippi.
Q (Off mike.)
SEN. MCCONNELL: I don't -- that hasn't been determined. He didn't announce the size. And -- I mean, he will determine what the size of it is, and I'm sure he's going to make that recommendation sometime soon.
Q (Off mike.)
REP. BOEHNER: It's the size, because our kids and grandkids are going to have to pay for it.
And then the other part of that is, well, how much stimulation of the economy do you get? If you get short-term and long-term effect out of this package, then frankly the size may not matter. But this package; we haven't seen it yet. We're anxious to see it and anxious to work, with our new president, to get it finished.
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