Media Stakeout with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)
Press Conference
SEN. MCCONNELL: (In progress) -- came from a bipartisan meeting of the Senate and House leadership with the president. We had a good discussion about the most important issue in the country right now, which is to -- what we can do to get the economy moving.
The administration strikes me as open to our suggestions, and we've made a number of them, both Senate and House leadership. I do think we'll be able to meet the president's deadline of getting the package to him by mid-February.
I think I can safely say that most Republicans actually believe the speaker had it right last year when she said any stimulus package ought to be timely, temporary and targeted. I think that's a good test to apply to what we're trying to do here. And it will require a good deal of restraint on both sides to try to keep it within those parameters.
REP. BOEHNER: I agree. I think we had a very productive meeting with the president and the vice president and our Democrat colleagues. There's unanimity that our economy needs help. And there's also a desire to move a package that would help rescue our economy, help American families, small businesses, entrepreneurs and the self- employed.
We expressed our concerns about some of the spending that's being proposed in the House bill and the fact that it doesn't spend out very quickly; it's almost too late. And we have concerns about -- obviously, about the size of the package.
The president has asked for our ideas. And we're -- may still be scheduled to meet with him next week. But we felt that as fast as this timing is moving, we needed to share those ideas with him today.
And so Mr. Cantor and I outlined the ideas from the House Republicans about we can get fast-acting tax relief in the hands of American families and small businesses, because at the end of the day, government can't solve this problem. The American people have to solve this. And the way they can solve it is if we allow them to keep more of the money that they earn.
Q Mr. Boehner, you talked about the size of the package perhaps being too big. But there are many economists now who are starting to talk about the package being too small, that the economy might need something as much as $2 trillion over the next five years, and something clearly over a trillion dollars.
What do you think of those arguments? And could your caucus support something that big?
REP. BOEHNER: I think at this point we believe that spending nearly a trillion dollars is really more than what we ought to be putting on the backs of our kids and their kids, because at the end of the day, this is not our money to spend. We're borrowing this money from our kids. And so we've got to -- we have to find a package that's the right size. You know, if we're going to come back and revisit this later this year or next year, we can deal with that at that time.
But I think that the most important point that we all agreed in the room is that we have to do this right. It has to work. Obviously, Republicans have got ideas that lowering tax rates and allowing people to keep more of what they earn will allow them to spend that money, invest that money or save it, all of which are good for the economy.
Q Senator McConnell? Senator McConnell?
Q Mr. Boehner, you had pretty strong words in your reaction to the Democratic House proposal. What was your message to President Obama?
REP. BOEHNER: You know, I'm concerned about the size of the package. And I'm concerned about some of the spending that's in there, how you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives. How does that stimulate the economy? You can go through a whole host of issues in this bill that have nothing to do with growing jobs in America and helping people keep their jobs.
END.
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