Perino: Second stimulus would have to pass ‘tests’

The White House on Tuesday seemed to temper enthusiasm about a second stimulus package, saying that any such legislation would need to meet certain criteria, such as not resulting in a tax increase.

But White House press secretary Dana Perino said President Bush remains open to anything that would help stimulate the economy, and endorsed some of the principles put forth by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

{mosads}On Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke endorsed the idea of a second stimulus, but Perino said Tuesday that most of the proposals the White House is seeing from congressional Democrats are not ideas that would boost the economy.

“We are open to good ideas,” Perino said. “We will listen to people if they put anything forward that we think would actually stimulate the economy. So far, we have not seen that. We’ve seen a lot of campaign talking points, but nothing that would actually stimulate the economy.”

Perino said there is a lot of money in the “pipeline” as a result of the financial rescue package, and the White House is focused more on implementing that package than on proposing its own stimulus plan.

“Right now, what we’re focusing on is the urgent crisis at hand, which is to stop the bleeding, get the rescue package implemented, so that we could unfreeze the credit markets,” she said.

Perino argued that what Democrats have proposed thus far is nothing like what was passed and signed in February, when Americans were given $600 checks to try and stimulate a faltering economy. Perino said the second-quarter numbers indicated that plan had worked.

She added that Boehner has put forth some good principles — though Perino said she has not studied what the minority leader is proposing — but she added that any suggestion of tax increases would be a deal-breaker.

To that end, Perino said, “there’s going to be some tests that have to be met” if a second stimulus package lands on the president’s desk.

“Raising taxes on the American people right now would be the worst thing that we could possibly do for this economy. That’s something that the president will not be able to support,” she stated.

Perino repeatedly noted that legislation for a second stimulus did not make it through Congress last month. While a $61 billion package passed the House, a slightly different, $56 billion package died in the Senate.