Mitch McConnell has yet to locate his spine… he needs to hear from you
Sen. Mitch McConnell has a knack for wimping out when it actually matters. Right now, Republicans need to stand strong and refuse to give any power back to the Democrats. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Senator McConnell’s plan will do.
Mitch McConnell’s “contingency plan” for the Debt Ceiling fight is this, alsosummarized by Erick Erickson at RedState:
In a nutshell, the President would get to raise the debt ceiling three times in the next year at several billion bucks a pop without making any spending cuts unless two-thirds of both houses of Congress disagree. In his press conference, McConnell says he would not give the President “unilateral authority to make spending cuts on his own,” but this plan would allow the President to raise the debt ceiling pretty much automatically.
Sen. McConnell’s office has released more details on the plan. It’s all laid out at National Review.
Michelle Malkin has a good round-up of reaction.
The problems with this are numerous, but in effect, what Senator McConnell has done is reveal a “last resort” plan months in advance, and is handing the ball back to President Obama and the Democrats instead of standing strong in the fight to cut, cap and balance the budget.
“If Sen. McConnell thinks cutting spending is too hard, maybe he should listen to the tea party grassroots that sent 87 additional Republicans to Congress last year. We don’t think it’s too hard to figure out how to cut spending. We want to see real cuts, spending caps with teeth, and a Balanced Budget Amendment. We’ll be encouraging our million-plus members to help Sen. McConnell find his spine. We are publishing his phone number and urging everyone to call it.”