Tag: Mitch McConnell

Saying the era of bipartisanship is over is a bit like saying that MySpace is over

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“Bipartisanship” is a weird, malleable word in the context of Senate legislation. Does it mean a bill that earned votes from a number of senators from each party? At least one vote from each? A bill that most Americans support? A bill that was drafted with input from members of each party? Everyone seems to agree that bipartisanship is ideal but, because of that, everyone also seems to reorient it in a way that’s particularly useful at a particular moment.

So we have Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) firmly proclaiming on Tuesday that “the era of bipartisanship is over.” The occasion was apparently another collapse in conversations between the White House and Republicans over an infrastructure package, legislation that both President Biden and Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) hoped would be in some form bipartisan. Again, what standard needed to be met was never clear. It’s like the old “know it when you see it” standard about porn, except for the polar opposite of porn, which is a congressional funding bill for highways.

As soon as McConnell made those comments, you could hear eyes rolling from the offices of Democratic senators. In part because of Biden’s repeated declarations that he wanted legislation to be bipartisan, McConnell has made few overtures to actually meet the Democratic mini-majority on legislation. In fact, he said last month that “100 percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration,” which isn’t particularly “bipartisan” as an outcome. Continue reading.

McConnell rushes to cameras to say the ‘era of bipartisanship is over’ after infrastructure talks break down

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U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wasted no time in rushing to find TV cameras to brag “the era of bipartisanship is over,” after talks between the Biden White House and McConnell’s hand-picked surrogate, Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) broke down Tuesday afternoon.

“As you look to what the Majority Leader has in mind for June, it’s pretty clear the era of bipartisanship is over,” McConnell said, referring to Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s intention to bring legislation on paycheck fairness, LGBTQ equality, and gun control to the floor for votes.

It took McConnell less than one hour from the time news broke about the talks, which had been going on for about two weeks, and when he spoke to reporters. Continue reading.

Mitch McConnell’s big bluff: Here’s the real reason he wants to keep the filibuster so badly

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Last week, United States Senator Kyrsten Sinema expressed ongoing support for the filibuster, arguing that “it is a tool that protects the democracy of our nation” and prevents our country from “[ricocheting] wildly every two to four years back and forth between policies.” Then, over the weekend, Joe Manchin echoed a similar sentiment, writing that Democrats have “attempted to demonize the filibuster and conveniently ignore how it has been critical to protecting the rights of Democrats in the past.”

Sinema and Manchin have been rhapsodizing over the filibuster and the virtues of bipartisanship for months, so these arguments are far from surprising. One obvious problem is they fly in the face of overwhelming evidence that bipartisanship is (mostly) dead. However, there’s another, more troubling problem that warrants our attention.

Sinema and Manchin maintain that the filibuster protects not only our democracy, but also the Democratic Party. If we rely on a mere majority for legislation, the thinking goes, any leftward movement will be met with an equal rightward shift when the GOP inevitably returns to power. Thus, we are to believe that the filibuster not only ensures stability, but, in the long run, actually protects Democratic Party’s legislative interests.  Continue reading.

Sen. Murkowski delivers pointed criticism of fellow Republicans, including McConnell, who oppose Jan. 6 commission

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On the eve of the failure of a measure that would form a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters that the decision facing senators is about more than “just one election cycle.”

Murkowski made the remarks in an extraordinary exchange at the Capitol on Thursday night. It comes as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been urging Republican senators to oppose the establishment of an independent commission, which he argued is “extraneous,” and as relatives of the late Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick plead with senators to back the legislation.

“They don’t want to rock the boat,” Murkowski said of Republican senators who oppose the commission. “They don’t want to upset. But again, it’s important that there be a focus on the facts and on the truth. And that may be unsettling, but we need to understand that.” Continue reading.

Trump demanded McConnell and McCarthy oppose Jan. 6 commission. They are dutifully complying

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Donald Trump, the former president, Tuesday night in a blog post called on the top two Congressional Republicans to put an end to “discussions” to form a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection and attempted coup that he incited.

They are complying.

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Tuesday afternoon had expressed “surprising” opennessto a January 6 commission, several news sources reported, but by Tuesday evening the Senate Minority Leader told reporters he is “pushing the pause button.”

House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been opposed to the commission since early Tuesday, some say due to his possible involvement in the lead up to the deadly riots that day. Continue reading.

McConnell says he opposes ‘slanted’ Jan. 6 commission bill

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that he doesn’t support legislation that would create a commission to probe the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. 

“After careful consideration, I’ve made the decision to oppose the House Democrats slanted and unbalanced proposal for another commission to study the events of Jan. 6,” McConnell said from the Senate floor. 

McConnell’s speech comes after he informed Senate Republicans of his decision during a breakfast meeting on Wednesday. Continue reading.

‘Out of touch’ Mitch McConnell is ‘stunned’ that CEOs are ignoring the GOP on culture war issues

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During an MSNBC discussion on corporations taking stances on hot button political issues that don’t align with Republican Party beliefs, contributor Eugene Robinson told “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is having difficulty dealing with a changing world.

In yet another discussion on the Republican Party’s war on “woke’ corporations — which is costing the GOP financial support — host Scarborough said GOP leaders are failing to remember that company’s CEOs first concern is profits and they will take whichever side in a topic that adds to the bottom line.

Using Nike’s backing of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the National Anthem — and the fact that the sporting goods giant saw no slowdown in their sales afterward — as a jumping-off point, columnist Robinson said the Republicans are doing a poor job of reading the room. Continue reading.

McConnell: No Senate Republicans will back Biden on $4T

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Monday that he expected no Republicans would support President Biden‘s sweeping infrastructure package, indicating GOP lawmakers are open to a roughly $600 billion bill.

“I think it’s worth talking about but I don’t think there will be any Republican support — none, zero — for the $4.1 trillion grab bag which has infrastructure in it but a whole lot of other stuff,” McConnell said in a press conference in Kentucky.

Biden has proposed a sweeping roughly $4 trillion infrastructure package broken up into two pieces: A $2.3 trillion jobs package and a $1.8 trillion families package. While the package includes money for roads, bridges and broadband, it also expands into manufacturing, in-home care, housing, clean energy, public schools and manufacturing. Continue reading.

McConnell accuses Biden of ‘bait and switch’ for keeping campaign promises

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Sen. Mitch McConnell accused President Joe Biden of running as a moderate but not governing as one.

Speaking to reporters, McConnell said:

With regard to the direction of the Biden administration so far, I think it can best be described as the “Biden bait and switch.” President Biden ran as a moderate, but I’m hard pressed to think of anything at all that he’s done — so far — that would indicate some degree of moderation.

The bait is always the title, like the massive COVID bill, but with only 1% for vaccines and 9% for health care. Or infrastructure, which is the bait, but the details involve more money for electric cars than for most projects that most of us consider infrastructure. And of course a massive tax increase, undoing the 2017 tax bill, which produced the biggest, best economy in 50 years as recently as February of 2020. Or a bill styled as voting rights, which in fact is a carefully designed plan for the Democrats to take over all of American elections all across the country.

But while it is clear that McConnell does not back Biden’s agenda, it is anything but a “bait and switch.” His policy agenda as president has been consistent with the proposals he outlined as a candidate. Continue reading.

‘Urgency’ creates a Senate path for AAPI hate crimes legislation

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Schumer, McConnell to discuss amendments

Something unusual happened in the Senate on Tuesday, when both sides of the aisle showed a willingness to debate legislation to address a rise in violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The divisive partisanship of recent years has kept even popular legislation from the kind of floor action expected for the bill, starting Wednesday, including the possibility of votes on bipartisan amendments.

But Democrats cited both an urgency to address the hate crimes against AAPI individuals and the straightforwardness of the legislation by Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, as reasons to skip the typical committee process and hold a floor vote. Continue reading.