|
Congressional Republicans said Thursday that a financial
stimulus is needed, but they are worried that the incoming administration may
try to do too much, too fast. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and Senate
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said that hastily passing a package at
a price tag of $1 trillion may create more long-term problems than it solves in
the near future.
They caution that any plan must be “timely, targeted and
temporary” — echoing a catch phrase used by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
before the bipartisan stimulus bill was passed and signed into law in February
2008.
“Let’s [not] use the obvious need as a way to make the
problem worse,” McConnell told reporters at a press conference following
President- elect Obama's address on the economy at George Mason University.
“The last thing we ought to do in this package is make
long-term systemic changes that make the spending problem even worse. We don’t
want to make big mistakes that exacerbate the problem we already have, which is
a dramatic, eye-popping deficit,” he said.
Boehner said, “It’s very important that we find the right
balance. Yes, our economy needs help, but at the end of the day, how much debt
are we going to pile on future generations?”
He noted that Wednesday's dire deficit projection from
the Congressional Budget Office includes neither the money to be spent on the
stimulus package nor the war supplemental.
Though the leaders applauded Obama’s pledge to reach out
to Republicans for input, GOP leadership aides grumbled behind the scenes that
they have not been consulted since the initial Monday meeting with Obama on
Capitol Hill. A small group of House Republicans is meeting on Thursday afternoon to craft an alternative economic stimulus package.
This is the second meeting of the select working group, headed by House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (Va.), in as many days.
A Republican leadership aide explained that the minority wants to be ready with proposals to share with the Obama administration.
"We don't just want a list of talking points," he said.
GOP members who were in the meeting included Reps. Cantor, Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), John Campbell (Calif.), Chris Lee (N.Y.), Judy Biggert (Ill.), Dave Camp (Mich.), David Dreier (Calif.), Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.) Kevin Brady (Texas) and Peter Roskam (Ill.).
This article was updated at 3:16 p.m.
|
