Sen. McConnell on Debt Ceiling Raise: I Protected the Country

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said at a Friday campaign rally that his leadership in helping raise the debt ceiling was an effort to “protect the country.”

“We were confronted with a clean debt ceiling in the Senate or default,” said McConnell. “Every time we’ve been confronted with a potential crisis, the guy you’re looking at is the one who stepped up to solve the problem.” 

McConnell also highlighted his role in working with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) during the government shutdown and default threat last October.

“My job is to protect the country when I can, and to step up and lead on those occasions when it’s required. That’s what I did,” said McConnell. 

McConnell’s comments come on the heels of his vote, along with 11 other Republicans, to side with Democrats in a cloture vote (procedure to break a filibuster) to thwart Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) effort to achieve deficit reductions in exchange for hiking the nation’s debt ceiling.

“Today was a classic victory for Washington establishment interests, and the people who lost were the American people who find the fiscal and economic condition of this nation even worse because of a lack of leadership,” said Cruz.