Today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blasted President Obama’s unwillingness to talk about spending. Speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt, McConnell said, “The President thinks he can bully us into not talking about spending. And it clearly won’t work.” Later, he reiterated: “This is the time to engage, and he’s not going to bully us into not talking about spending.”
McConnell stated that he would not be discussing the tax rates further. “But now, the tax issue is over, and we move on to engage on the biggest problem confronting the future, and that’s the overspending,” he told Hewitt.
Would Republicans be willing to shut down the government rather than raising the debt ceiling? McConnell said, “What we have been unable to get him to do so far, in multiple conversations, and in various legislative negotiations, is to get him to actually agree to make the changes that are necessary to save the country. So hopefully, it won’t come to the issue of whether or not we have to default. Default is something that I think most people would think would be a bad idea, but it doesn’t mean that the President just kind of willy-nilly gets a debt ceiling increase just because he asks for it. He’s got to earn it.”
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News, and author of the upcoming book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.