McConnell: Dems More Interested In Making History Than Good Policy

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) claimed Wednesday that Senate Democrats' view passing health care reform legislation more as a chance to make history than create good policy.

"They’re left with the following argument, 'make history," said McConnell. “As we all know many things have happened in history some of them have not been good at all. This is the wrong kind of history.”

Armed with newspaper clippings, McConnell referenced recent polls showing that Democrats have lost public support on health care reform.

“Their problem isn’t the 40 of us, it’s the American people,” said the Minority Leader.

McConnell Concerned Cloture Vote Will Be Considered Vote For Health Care Reform

Travis Martinez, Univerity of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) argued Tuesday that a vote of cloture to proceed with the Democrats' health care reform bill will be perceived by the public as a vote to endorse “half a trillion in Medicare cuts, four hundred billion in new taxes and higher health insurance premiums for all.”

McConnell explained the dilemma Senators will face when the motion of cloture comes forth, invoking the specter of Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) unsuccessful presidential campaign.

"I think we all remember the Kerry campaign and we all remember the difficulty of explaining to our constituents why we were for something before we were against it," McConnell said, referencing a statement Kerry made on his feelings toward the Iraq war.

"I think it is perfectly clear that most Americans will treat the vote to get on with the [health care] bill as a vote on the substance of the bill," the Republican leader added.

Obama’s budget is a calculated risk not a sweetheart deal

By Candyce Torres, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service. “If the American people look at the budget they should be extremely concerned about what it’s going to do to their children’s capacity to have a high quality of life, what’s it’s going to do to the ability of this nation to basically continue to function as fiscally-responsible country.” said Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH)

Today a press conference on the budget was held by Senator Greg and Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Together McConnell and Gregg expressed serious concerns pertaining to the size of the budget. Gregg indicated that spending will drastically increase over time because the Obama budget has proposed they take spending at the federal level up to 23% of gross national product and keep it there. As a result he stated this will create massive spending gaps, which will lead to massive deficits, and will ultimately result in massive debt. He concluded that after 10 years the debt will translate into $17 trillion.

“If you take all the president’s since George Washington through George Bush and add up all the debt they have put on the books for the American people; President Obama’s proposal actually equals and exceeds that amount of debt in his first term, staggering numbers when you think about it.” concluded Gregg

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): Republicans are trying to reform the economic stimulus bill

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service


"The package that most of my members would support would be dramatically different from what passed in the House and frankly dramatically different from what we currently see out of the Finance committee and Appropriations committee." said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

In a press conference on "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" McConnell expressed his concerns and beliefs about the trillion dollar economic recovery bill. "We believe, Republicans, that a stimulus bill must fix the main problem first and that's housing. That's how all of this began." McConnell stated that we focus on the two lower tax rates for income tax payers up to 65,000 a year. He suggested lowering the 10% rate to 5% and the 15% rate to 10%.

McConnell said that the second part of the package that will help do the job is that the package be timely, temporary and targeted. "It would put money back in people's hands directly." He expressed that there is an attempt underway to use the bill to increase permanent spending. He stated that he thought it was a bad idea no matter how worthwhile the proposals are.

When asked if he thought the trillion dollar figure was large enough McConnell said "Someone mentioned the other day, one of my colleagues, just to put a trillion dollars in context. If you started spending the day Jesus was born and you spent a million dollars every single day you still wouldn't have spent a trillion dollars. It's a lot of money." He said. "We know we need to jump start it but most of my members feel we can do it for less then what is currently proposed."

Despite the fact that no Republican voted in favor of the bill McConnell said "Nobody that I know of is trying to keep a package from passing... We're trying to reform it... Put it in a different place."