McConnell Renews Pressure On Obama

Mitch McConnell is keeping pressure on Barack Obama to give Republicans adequate time to review the massive economic stimulus package that Democrats hope to pass by the time the president-elect is sworn into office on Jan. 20.

The Senate Republican leader's statement comes days after he and House Republican Leader John Boehner called for at least a week-long period to review the package before it's brought forward for a vote. The bill is now being negotiated behind closed doors by Democrats, who plan to bring the GOP into the process early next week. Obama meets with Congressional leaders from both parties Monday.

Here's McConnell's full statement, issued Friday afternoon:

"We agree with President-elect Obama that taking action to turn the economy around is job one. We also agree, though, that every dollar needs to be spent wisely and not wasted in the rush to get it spent. And we believe that his admonition to ‘go through the federal budget—page by page, line by line—eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way’ should apply to this, potentially the largest spending bill ever considered by the Congress. And we hope that Democrats in Congress don’t attempt to shut the American taxpayer out of this process by trying to pass a bill that hasn’t been the subject of bipartisan review and that hasn’t been available for public inspection.”