(CNSNews.com) – The House and Senate Republican leaders and former Republican presidential candidate John McCain agree that they cannot support the Democrats’ economic stimulus package as written.
 
They said Republican want their ideas, including tax cuts, included in the final legislation. But aside from expressing the hope that Republicans’ suggestions will be incorporated, none of them said they would work to block the plan beyond voting “no.”
 
McCain: ‘I would not support it’
 
McCain, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and House Republican leader John Boehner all appeared on television within the past 24 hours to outline their positions.
 
McCain, appearing on Fox News Sunday, said he counts himself among the “loyal opposition” to President Barack Obama, and he while he’ll “help” where he can, he says he’ll also “stand up” for Republican Party principles.
 
McCain said he can help the news president in devising a strategy to win the war in Afghanistan. But he indicated that he may not be much help when it comes to passing the $825-billion economic stimulus package that President Obama wants.
 
“I am opposed to most of the provisions in the bill. As it stands now, I would not support it,” McCain told Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace.
 
“We need to make tax cuts permanent, and we need to make a commitment that there'll be no new taxes. We need to cut payroll taxes. We need to cut business taxes,” McCain told Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace.
 
“[T]here's got to be some kind of litmus as to whether it will really stimulate the economy and whether it will in the short term,” McCain added.
 
McCain also said there should be an “end point” to the federal spending in two years. He said the plan needs “major rewrites if we want to stimulate the economy.”
 
Asked if he would filibuster the economic stimulus package, McCain said he’d rather have everyone “sit down and negotiate.”
 
“The Republicans have not been brought in to the degree that we should be into these negotiations and discussions,” he said. “So far, as far as I can tell, no Republican proposal has been incorporated.”
 
 
McCain indicated that a three-week timetable for producing a Senate bill may be realistic:
 
“Well, I think we can sit down in three weeks and work hard and negotiate and come to some agreement, hopefully. I will continue to hope that we will and will continue to dedicate myself to that proposition.
 
“Republicans will have proposals as part of the stimulus package. I hope they are considered and I hope they're adopted.”
 
McConnell: Stimulus will take too long
 
Appearing on “Fox & Friends” Monday morning, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he has a number of concerns about the stimulus package.
 
“A lot of this is going to spend out over a very lengthy period of time, not have much of an impact in the short term,” McConnell said.
 
McConnell said he’s not confident that the plan will work as written. “I think the House package looks pretty bad,” he said. He noted that the Senate hasn’t drafted its own legislation yet.
 
 “The president enjoys great popularity, people want him to succeed. I’m not prepared to sort of nitpick over every comment here in the beginning. We’re looking at the substance of this, and at least the substance – as defined by congressional Democrats at the moment -- seems to fall well short of what a stimulus package ought to be,” McConnell said.
 
McConnell said a tax cut – putting money straight into the hands of individuals and businesses – “will have a quicker stimulative effect than having the government spend it on projects, particularly ones that are likely to spend out in year three and year four.”
 
McConnell said he’d like to see a one- or two-year payroll tax holiday “that would put taxes in the hands of everybody who has a job, whether they pay income taxes or not.” It would be both an individual and business tax cut, he said.
 
He also objects to having the federal government send chunks of money to the states: “I would make the money for states a loan, rather than a grant,” McConnell said. Otherwise you’re going to see a lot of mob museums and waterslides and Lord only knows what…We’re going to end up with some very embarrassing expenditures.”
 
Boehner: Democrats’ package ‘won’t work’
 
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” House Republican Leader John Boehner agreed that the nation needs an economic rescue package – “but we all want one that works” for small businesses and families. It must create and preserve jobs, Boehner said.

Boehner said the Democrats’ plan includes “a lot of slow-moving government spending…that won't work.”
 
Like McConnell, Boehner wants more tax cuts: “Let’s allow American families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn…  We can’t borrow and spend our way back to prosperity but what we can do [is] provide incentives to businesses and families to reinvest in our economy.”
 
On the other hand, Boehner said, Democrats believe that spending is going to help: “But spending $200 million to fix up the National Mall, $21 million for sod, over $200 million for contraceptives, how is this going to fix an ailing economy?” Boehner asked.
 
“And right now, given the concerns we have over the size of this package and all of the spending in this package, we don’t think it’s going to work.  And so if it’s the plan I see today, put me down in the no column.”
 
Boehner says he would vote against the plan – and he believes a number of other Republicans would vote against it, too.

But in the next breath, when asked about Obama’s popularity with the American people, Boehner said Republicans have “made it clear we want to work with the new president. He’s made it clear he wants to work with us. That’s why we laid out our ideas at his invitation the other day.  And we want to continue to work with him to help fix this economy.”
 
Boehner said it “isn't about Democrat or Republican. We have some serious problems in our economy.  And believe me, all of us want the president to succeed.  We want this plan to work.  Now, there's no real daylight between the president and Republicans on the Hill. There may be some disagreement over how much spending or how much in the way of tax relief.  But at the end of the day, we want him to succeed because America needs him to succeed.”