Trent Lott: “The principles I thought we were proceeding on were: We wanted to have a stimulus package that would have an immediate…”

“The principles I thought we were proceeding on were: We wanted to have a stimulus package that would have an immediate effect, not one that would have an effect 6 months or 1 year from now; also, it would not have negative long-term effects, such as driving up the deficit significantly and therefore eventually affecting interest rates; and it would have an immediate stimulative effect. We believe adding $15 billion on top of the additional expenditures that were added in the Finance Committee--and I am not sure what the total amount of money was that was added in spending in the Finance Committee, but it probably would put it in the range of $20 billion to $25 billion in additional expenditures, which is not the way to stimulate the economy. Again, it may be argued that at some point it should be considered separately. The President has indicated that when they need additional funds, they will ask for additional funds. The President has specifically said they do not need these additional funds at this time. As I noted a while ago, there have been no hearings on this, but as long as there is an effort to turn this into another major spending bill, that is a problem. We should sit down and negotiate on the bill that came out of the Finance Committee and work out an agreement. That is the way to go, and that is what we are going to insist on. We are ready to do that at any time.”