Gregg pushes for stimulus one day after nomination

GOP Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.) on Wednesday offered public support for the Obama administration’s stimulus package, one day after the fiscal hawk was nominated as Commerce secretary.

“I’ve been supportive of a very robust stimulus package since day one,” Gregg said during an appearance Wednesday morning on CNBC. “The only group that has liquidity around here is the federal government.”

{mosads}He said he expected the version to emerge from the Senate to be an improvement upon the version approved by the House last week.

The Senate is considering a stimulus package that now totals more than $900 billion, a price tag that is costing the legislation support from centrist senators in both parties.

Gregg, who said he would recuse himself from a vote on the package, pledged to stick to his fiscally conservative principles in Obama’s administration.

Gregg said Obama had asked him specifically to serve as Commerce secretary to help address entitlement reform.

“What I was asked to do is come down and provide my expertise on fiscal policy, but especially on entitlements,” Gregg said. “He specifically asked me to come down and address entitlement reform.

“He wanted my voice in the room as a statement of a philosophy he wanted to have,” the Republican lawmaker said. “I think you can be sure I will stick to my principles, but I’m going to do it from within the tent.”

Gregg was noncommittal when pressed by the network’s Larry Kudlow — a noted conservative who was among the right-of-center pundits who dined with Obama last month — about a package proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would reduce taxes and government spending. Gregg said that if McCain could pass the alternative package, an unlikely prospect given Democratic control of the Senate, Gregg would take a “hard look” at it.