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McConnell: ‘There Are More Democratic Positions Than You’d Find In A Stack Of Newspapers’
Appearing on Face The Nation, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) put forward Republican unity on health care — contrasted to the Democratic divisions that have delayed passage of a bill, even with 60 Democratic Senators. “It’s noteworthy that you had to have three Democrats on to explain the Democratic position,” said McConnell. “There are more Democratic positions than you’d find in a stack of newspapers, [and] therein lies the problem.”

Summers Predicts Positive Job Growth By Spring
Appearing on This Week, White House Economic Council Director Larry Summers predicted positive job growth by the spring: “If you look at the employment statistics, they will show employment growth. They were showing losing 700,000 a month. Last month, they showed losing 11,000 jobs. They will bounce from month to month, but I believe that, as do most professional forecasters, that by spring, employment growth will start to be turning positive.”

Romer: Unemployment Rate Could Go Up As People Return To Job Market
Appearing on Meet The Press, Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer explained that when the job market starts to pick up, the official unemployment rate could actually increase, because of the return of discouraged workers to the job market. “What they [analysts] say is actually once we start to recover, the chance that some of those seven to ten million people that have become discouraged workers, dropped out of the labor force, they may well come back in,” Romer said. “And that would cause it to go up a bit. But then, you know, once we’re firmly growing again, once employment growth is again– coming again, we will see the unemployment rate start to come down.”

Cantor Defends GOP Opposition To Financial Regulation Package
Appearing on This Week, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) defended Republican opposition to the financial regulation package that passed the House last week. “Listen, none of us want another meltdown. None of us want the kind of abyss that we were peering into this time last year. There is no question,” said Cantor. “And we also want to make sure that people got a fair shot in terms of accessing good investments for their future and their retirement. The bill that came to the floor, frankly, was a bill that created a permanent bailout for banks. It put Washington in the seat to determine which banks will fail and which will succeed, and it extended TARP in terms of making it a permanent program. That’s not what America wants.”

Summers: ‘A Bit Rich’ For Wall Street To Receive Government Aid, Fight Against Regulations
Appearing on State of the Union, White House Economic Council Director Larry Summers castigated Wall Street firms for putting the economy in crisis, benefitting from government aid, and then lobbying against the new regulation package. “For firms that have benefited from taxpayer support to be complaining about the government burdening them is, frankly, a bit rich,” said Summers.

Lieberman: I Would Have A Hard Time Voting For Medicare Buy-In
Appearing on Face The Nation, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) voiced skepticism about the talk of a Medicare buy-in. “On part of it – the so-called Medicare buy-in – the opposition to it has been growing as the week has gone on,” Lieberman said. “Though I don’t know exactly what’s in it, from what I hear I certainly would have a hard time voting for it because it has some of the same infirmities that the public option did.”

Ed Markey: Climate-Change Deniers Want To Create ‘Tree Ring Circus’
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) dismissed the so-called “Climategate” scandal, as being the product of climate-change deniers trying to twist a small portion of the science. “The deniers want to create a Siberian tree ring circus,” Markey said. “They want to take a small percentage of this entire study, a couple pages of it — 1,000 pages — and throw out the conclusion. … The real scandal will be is if we don’t solve this problem for coming generations.”

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