below, from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)….
Americans Are Waiting for the President to Lead, Not Lecture on Debt Negotiations
`Just a few days ahead of a potential default, the President announced that he’s the only person in Washington still calling for a massive tax hike, even as his party has dropped their own demands for what we know will make the current unemployment situation even worse. In short, the President is now clinging to two things we all know Congress can’t support: a massive tax hike and the biggest debt-limit increase in history aimed, in his own words, at getting him past the next election. As Speaker Boehner said last night, that’s just not going to happen. There’s bipartisan opposition to it in Congress.’
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement on the Senate floor Tuesday regarding efforts to cut federal spending and reduce the deficit:
“Last night the President explained to the nation the crisis that we face right now as he sees it.
“His hope was to lift the debate up out of the gritty legislative particulars, and I understand that.
“Unfortunately, the situation the President described last night bears very little resemblance to the realities on the ground here in Washington right now.
“I know the President would rather give speeches about our problems than resolve them. But he wasn’t elected to talk about the United States, he was elected to lead it.
“And in our system of government, that means working with people and a Congress that you sometimes disagree with.
“Last night the President rejected not just the only proposal that has passed either house of Congress, he rejected the only plan the Democrats have proposed as well – a plan that would increase the debt limit without raising taxes.
“Just a few days ahead of a potential default, the President announced that he’s the only person in Washington still calling for a massive tax hike, even as his party has dropped their own demands for what we know will make the current unemployment situation even worse.
“In short, the President is now clinging to two things we all know Congress can’t support: a massive tax hike and the biggest debt-limit increase in history aimed, in his own words, at getting him past the next election.
“As Speaker Boehner said last night, that’s just not going to happen. There’s bipartisan opposition to it in Congress.
“So it was deeply irresponsible in my view for the President of the United States to present the American people with a false choice last night between tax hikes and default.
“The real choice is this: a bill that can get us past this moment of crisis, cuts Washington spending, and actually get through Congress, or one that can’t.
“Republicans have offered the only proposal that attempts to get at the root of the problem — and which actually has a chance of getting to the President’s desk.
“That’s why we’ll continue to press for the legislation Speaker Boehner has proposed.
“And that’s why we’ll fight against anything that pretends to solve the problem but doesn’t.
“The Majority Leader proposed a plan yesterday that’s nothing more than another attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people.
“The decisions we make in the next 72 hours will have a very real impact on every American.
“Those decisions should be made based on how they will affect the people who are struggling to get a job, not how they affect some politician’s chances of getting reelected.
“The President can claim to be concerned about this impending crisis. But one question continues to linger above every press conference he’s called or every speech he’s delivered: where is his plan to resolve it?
“Republicans have proposed multiple plans that have support in both parties. It’s time for the President to put his electoral interests and preferences aside and do what’s needed. Americans are waiting for the President to do what they elected him to do: not to lecture, but to lead.”
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