[I]t’s important to note that every economist, conservative or liberal, at this point agrees that we have to have a substantial recovery plan that helps to jump-start the economy, that short term it’s going to be expensive, but it would be much more expensive to see the economy continue in the tailspin that it’s been going in. We’ve seen ranges from [$]800 [billion] to [$]1.3 trillion and our attitude was that given the legislative process, if we start towards the low end of that, we’ll see how it develops.

Pressed if the package would get bigger than the $775 billion the Obama team tossed out earlier this week, the Illinois Democrat said simply, “We don’t know yet.”

Sounds like a good time to start canning vegetables.

From McConnell’s prepared remarks:

Congressional Democrats have talked about sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the states. If we loan these funds, rather than give them away, states will be far less likely to spend it frivolously. And the taxpayer would have greater assurance their money is well spent.

No word on how states, which are furiously cutting services in the face of enormous budget shortfalls, would be expected to pay back these loans afterward (short, of course, of cutting services). In this context, McConnell’s words sound less like a gesture of bipartisanship than they do a warning to Democrats to cave to GOP demands.