Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sunday said an economic stimulus plan could receive “significant support” from Republicans if Democratic leaders include the GOP and don’t rush the bill.

The Senate GOP leader suggested on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that Republicans will decide their legislative strategy based on how Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) runs the process. If Reid and his aides allow Republican input, McConnell indicated that a stimulus plan could receive as many as 80 votes in the chamber.

McConnell warned that an attempt to ram through such an expensive measure to have it on Obama’s desk on Inauguration Day could derail the legislation.

“That’s just not a practical thing to do,” he stated.

McConnell’s comments came as Democratic leaders on Sunday all but conceded a stimulus plan was unlikely before Obama's inauguration. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the House is aiming for approval in early February and that anything before the inauguration is impractical.

“It’s going to be very difficult to get the package put together that early so that it can have sufficient time to be reviewed, and then sufficient time to be debated and passed,” Hoyer said. “But we certainly want to see this package passed through the House of Representatives no later than the end of this month, get it over to the Senate, and have it to the president before we break for the presidential break."

Reid, speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” also hedged when asked if a stimulus could become law before February.

“We’re going to do our very, very best,” Reid said. “I’m not going to give you a timeline. We’re going to do it as quickly as we can. We’re going to be working nights. We’re going to be working weekends. We’re going to get this done.”

Both Reid and Hoyer hedged when asked whether the price tag for the program would exceed $1 trillion.

“It’s whatever it takes to bring this country back to a fiscal footing that is decent,” Reid said. “We don’t want to do a little bit and say ‘Well, we should have done more. Let’s come back and do it again.’ We want to do it right the first time.”

But McConnell said Republicans would press Democrats on the scope of the program. He took issue, for example, with Obama’s stated intent to use the public sector for 20 percent of the 3 million new jobs the plan would presumably create.

“That would be 600,000 new government jobs. That’s about the size of the post office workforce. Is that a good idea?” he said. “That’s something that strikes us that we ought to take a look at... I think, at least, hearings, and some kind of bipartisan considerations would be helpful.”

The Republican leader said potential areas for quick, bipartisan agreement include tax cuts -- he suggested lowering the 25 percent middle-class tax rate to 15 percent -- and nine appropriations bills left unpassed last year that total $400 billion.

“They’re ready to go. They’ve already been vetted by both sides, would pass on an overwhelming, bipartisan basis, and much of that spending, would be on things similar to what the president may be asking for in that package,” McConnell said.

More sweeping aspects of any stimulus plan would be met with resistance, however, McConnell said, expressing particular skepticism on extending unemployment benefits and healthcare benefits.

“Those are very big, systemic changes,” he said. “Do we in the name of stimulus want to make long-term, systemic changes that will affect spending every single year? I think that’s at least worth considering, having hearings about, having bipartisan discussions.”