Mitch McConnell, Majority Whip

From an interview Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell gave to Newsmax.com and The Hill, our annotations follow:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear on Thursday that repealing Obamacare would never be used by Republicans again to bring the federal government to a halt.

Unilateral disarmament. So as long as Old Mitch is there, Democrats know they can control the field. And you can bet with tables reversed the Democrats will show the same forbearance. McConnell should no longer be Minority Leader, he is sounding more of service as current Majority Whip.

The Obamacare strategy was pushed by several young congressional Republicans backed by the tea party — including freshman Sen. Ted Cruz,  . . . which led to a 16-day partial shutdown of the government and jeopardized the nation’s borrowing authority.

The “borrowing authority”  was never jeopardized except by Obama

“I think we have fully now acquainted our new members with what a losing strategy that is,” McConnell told The Hill.

Yessiree we put the young Turks in their place with every bit of half-hearted surface effort and undermining we could muster.

Standard & Poor’s estimated the shutdown has taken $24 billion out of the economy

No doubt using static presumptions. Government is a transfer agent only, and does not create wealth, and if government borrowed less to spend it does not mean that money is not in circulation in other ways.  Regardless, the money not spent will be spent later anyway. Are there any objective economists at Standard and Poor?

McConnell told The Hill that the fight to stop the healthcare law would not take place in January, either, even though he and many other Republicans “hate, detest, and despise Obamacare.”

And from Mitch McConnell, that and two dollars will get you a cup of coffee.

“But full-scale repeal is obviously something that’s not going to be achievable until I’m the majority leader of the Senate and we have a new president,” McConnell said.

That is a pitch for money, but send it to his Republican challenger. Other Senators will be happy to step up to the Majority Leader plate.

The GOP holds 46 seats in the upper chamber, versus 52 for Democrats. The Senate also has two independents, and they caucus with the Democrats . . .

It is past time for buisness as usual. That Republican number is enough to force bargains and save America from the scourge of Obamacare, that thing you hate and despise.  Delaying every substantive thing should have been the line in the sand.  And now, after the utter disaster of Obamacare is exposed, McConnell gave up one tool to save the country.

Meanwhile, McConnell told The Hill that he took over the negotiations leading to the final agreement after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and the White House rejected the latest offer from House Republicans.

Why were you not leading the negotiations before?

“So I met with my members. I said, ‘Look, I think we all know I have a weak hand here,'” McConnell told The Hill. “I’m on my own two-yard line. The offensive line is a little shaky, and what best I think we can do is get off a punt here to try to get into a better field position.”

Shaky because of poor quarterbacking.

“We didn’t raise taxes and we didn’t bust the caps, but we’ll be back at it in January and February, which is why I call it a punt, with better field position to fight again another day,”

And where is the McConnell “plan” anyway? With no intervening election and having given up the tool that may be necessary (filibuster) you can only hope for a fumble.  If you are in a position to force it, why were you not willing to do so before?

Cruz employed the only substantive tactic in furtherance of the need to stop Obamacare, to oppose it at every turn available while establishing the brand that Republicans are serious about stopping it, win lose or draw.

The preservation of the sequester does not prevent the corruption of society anymore than it already is ( and it is not that we could not have the sequester and at least a substantive  bargain over Obamacare). We can limp through two or three years of general debt and begin to fix that with a vibrant economy. Implementation of Obamacare results in  dependence on it. Nothing changes the culture, the very fabric of US society as much as Obamacare. We will never achieve a vibrant economy under Obamacare and we will have lost our soul.  That is what is at stake.  R Mall

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