McConnell To Obama: 'It's Not Going To Happen'

“Yesterday afternoon, I came to floor and offered President Obama’s proposal on the fiscal cliff to show that neither he, nor Democrats in Congress, are acting in good faith in these negotiations.

“With just a few weeks to go before a potentially devastating and entirely avoidable blow to the economy, the President proposed a plan that the members of his own party won’t even vote for.

“So I think it’s safe to say at this point that the President isn’t interested in a balanced agreement. He’s not particularly interested in avoiding the fiscal cliff. And he’s clearly not interested in cutting spending.

“What the President’s really interested in, as we all learned yesterday, is getting as much taxpayer money as he can — first by raising taxes on small businesses that he thinks make too much money, and then on everybody else— not so he can lower the debt or the deficit, but so he can spend to his heart’s content.

“For months, the President has been saying all he wants is to raise taxes on the top two percent so he can tackle the debt and the deficit. Yesterday, he finally revealed that’s not really his true intent. By demanding the power to raise the debt limit whenever he wants by as much as he wants, he showed what he’s really after is assuming unprecedented power to spend taxpayer dollars without any limit.

“This isn’t about getting a handle on deficits or debt for him. It’s about spending even more than he already is. Why else would he demand the power to raise the debt limit on his own?

“And by the way, why on earth would we even consider giving a President who’s brought us four years of trillion dollar deficits unchecked authority to borrow – he’s the last person who should have limitless borrowing power.

“Look: the only way we ever cut spending around here is by using the debate over the debt limit to do it. Now the President wants to remove that spur to cut altogether. It gets in the way of his spending plans.

“I assure you: it’s not going to happen. The American people want Washington to get spending under control. And the debt limit is the best tool we have to make the President take that demand seriously.

“The American people want us to fight to cut spending. It’s a fight they deserve. We’re happy to have it.”