McConnell Vows Tough Action Next Year – Even If it Means Another Shutdown

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/08/21/McConnell-Vows-Tough-Action-Next-Year-Even-If-it-Means-Another-Shutdown

By Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times
August 21, 2014

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) famously told National Journal in November 2010, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

McConnell and the Republicans failed to deliver on that threat but not before the country was treated to repeated budget crises, a near default on U.S. debt, 54 failed efforts in the House to derail Obamacare, and a 16-day government shutdown in late 2013.

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Just when Republicans appear to be edging toward victories in the 2014 mid-term election that could give them control of the Senate, McConnell is at it again, brashly vowing to use a new majority to pummel Obama with poison-pill legislation – even if that strategy could lead to another government shutdown.

In a revealing interview with Politico, McConnell said that a new Republican majority with him at the helm would attach riders to appropriations bills “that would limit Obama policies on everything from the environment to health care.” At the same time, the new GOP overlords would utilize arcane budget tactics like reconciliation to thwart Democratic filibusters and jam their amendments through.

“We’re going to pass spending bills, and they’re going to have a lot of restrictions on the activities of the bureaucracy,” McConnell told Politico’s Manu Raju during an interview aboard his campaign bus in Kentucky, where he is facing a tougher than expected re-election fight. “That’s something [Obama] won’t like, but that will be done. I guarantee it.”

McConnell said that a good example of that would be adding restrictions to Environmental Protection Agency regulations. Adding riders to spending bills would change the “behavior of the bureaucracy, which I think has been the single biggest reason this recovery has been so tepid.”

It is a strategy that would present Obama with the “stark choice” of either accepting bills that rein in or undercut administration policies “or veto them and risk a government shutdown,” Raju wrote.

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The Democrats currently hold a 55 to 45 seat majority. The Republicans need to pick up at least six seats to claim control. Polls suggest they are on track to do that, but Republicans have blown previous chances to regain the majority.

Even if the GOP squeaks by and wins a narrow majority, Democrats could turn the tables on Republicans and filibuster anti-Obama administration measures. And the president could wield his veto pen –- something he has been unwilling to do until now.

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