McConnell: President needs to be engaged to solve U.S. debt issue
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012, 7:45 p.m. – Sen. Mitch McConnell paid a visit to Bardstown Wednesday, speaking to the Bardstown Rotary Club luncheon at My Old Kentucky Home Country Club.
The group warmly received McConnell after an introduction by Kim Huston, president of the Nelson County Economic Development Agency.
“I know this is a largely Democratic county, so I go forward with a some fear and trepidation,” he quipped. “But you’ve been voting right in my elections, for which I want to thank you.”
McConnell spent his time discussing his view of where the country is since President Barack Obama took office.
He started by recalling a grammar school lesson: “The person that gets the most votes, wins – and gets to make policy. And unlike horse shoes or racing, there’s no prize for second place.”
McConnell said Congressional Republicans lost seats in 2006 and 2008. When Obama was elected, Republicans faced a Democratic president with a 65 or 70 percent approval rating, a 40-seat Democratic majority in the House and Democrats holding 60 of 100 seats in the Senate. In the Senate, 60 votes give the party more than the majority, but also nearly total control.
“It was about as good as it gets,” McConnell said.
With control of Congress, the Obama Administration was able to get the programs and legislation it wanted through Congress. The result was “by any objective standards, an explosion of government.”
The expanded role of government under Obama has meant that Washington D.C. is a boomtown, he said. “We’re awash in new federal employees that your grandchildren will have to pay the Chinese back for.”
The biggest threat to the United States is its debt, McConnell said. He said if you want to see what debt can do is look how it is impacting Europe.
“We now have a debt that’s a large as our economy, and that alone makes you look like Greece,” he said.
His biggest disappointment in 2011 he said was being unable to get both sides together to agree on spending and debt issues. “We struggled all year to bring the two sides together to do something significant to change the direction we’re in,” he said.
McConnell said Congress needs to address the country’s debt and said the key to a solution rests with getting the President to be engaged in the process.
“I like the President, personally,” McConnell said. “But he has a different world view of what America ought to be. He has a very Western European view of America.”
Only 40 percent of what the country spends is voted on by congress. The rest of the budget goes to entitlements or interest on the national debt.
The demographics of the country make paying for entitlements increasing difficult, he said. “You have more people living longer and longer, and fewer people paying in.”
Any change in entitlements will address future generations, not current recipients or those about to retire. But to both parties must come together to address it.
“This is a big debate about very big things,” he said. “This is a very significant argument about what kind of country you want to have.”
No matter the outcome of the 2012 elections, entitlement reform has to be addressed, he said.
“This issue isn’t going away,” he said. “What I’m hoping is that in the near term we will come together to put this country on a path to fiscal solvency.”
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