GOP MINORITY LEADER, MITCH McCONNELL: "OPENS MOUTH, INSERTS FOOT"

Key Republican leadership continues to show that they have major issues with telling the truth.

…Minority Leader McConnell

Most political junkies, (such as myself) are aware of what the bipartisan Conrad-Gregg proposal was supposed to achieve.

The Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Ranking Minority Member Judd Gregg (R-NH) had jointly authored legislation that would "create a bipartisan commission to propose a package of steps that would be given fast-track authority in both houses. They and others in congress wanted this legislation attached to any debt limit increase." The idea was to have a budget commission that would craft fiscal reforms that Congress would then have to vote on as a total package, with a "yes or no", up or down vote, but it would not allow picking the bill to pieces.

Even though this was a bipartisan proposal, members of both parties have complained that the proposal is somewhat flawed for various reasons and due to those problems, President Obama was not initially a supporter of the proposal.

In addition, no politician would usually support a proposal that doesn´t allow them to put in their "two-cents" of input. And both parties do not like any proposal that would make their supporters at home upset with their decisions, or a lack thereof. For instance, Democrats will not support any entitlement reform without angering their base at home and Republicans won't raise taxes without angering their traditional base.

But the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell seems to be a bit confused about how he really feels about the Conrad-Gregg proposal. And if I were a supporter of the senator, I would be calling his office for a more complete explanation for his recent decisions.

For months now, Senator McConnell had been making comments such as; "If people were serious about getting the debt under control, they wouldn't have supported the President's budget which doubles the debt in five years and triples it in ten. Or $2.5 trillion in health spending, or a trillion in stimulus spending. Our problems are not a result of taxing too little, but of spending too much."

And the senator´s answer to these issues were clear to him when he said : "We must address the issue of entitlement spending now before it is too late. As I have said many times before, the best way to address the crisis is the Conrad-Gregg proposal, which would provide an expedited pathway for fixing these profound long-term challenges. This plan would force us to get debt and spending under control. It deserves support from both sides of the aisle. As I have said many times before, the best way to address the crisis is the Conrad-Gregg proposal. "

There has been no question about Mitch McConnell's unwavering support for Conrad-Gregg. In fact, last spring the senator chided President Obama for not backing the proposal. And the senator has continued to endorsed it numerous times.

But when Conrad-Gregg came to a vote last week, Senator McConnell voted against it.

Now, could this response from the "party of no" be because President Obama belatedly changed his mind and stated that even though it was flawed, and to possibly gain some later support from the opposition, he would support the bill?

As columnist Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post said; "It's impossible to avoid the conclusion that the only thing that changed since May is the political usefulness of the proposal to McConnell's partisan goals. He was happy to claim fiscal responsibility while beating up Obama for fiscal recklessness. But when Obama endorsed the idea, as he did on the Saturday before the vote, and when the commission actually, against all odds, had the wisp of a chance of winning the needed 60 Senate votes, Senator McConnell bailed."

Yes sir, the Senator had a chance to demonstrate that the Republicans, when given a chance to actually prove their claim that they were not the "party of no", with a proposal that the Senate Minority Leader had indorsed for months, Senator McConnell just couldn´t resist the opportunity to "thumb-his-nose" at the president´s belated support. Once again, the Republican leaders have proven that what they say out-loud, even to the press, may or "may not mean squat".

And due to the senator´s minority leadership, Mike Allen of Politico has pointed out that a half-dozen Republicans who had co-sponsored the measure also voted against it, including former presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Even so, the commission proposal still attracted 53 votes. Therefore, if Senator McConnell had rallied his backsliding colleagues, and also joined them, it would have undoubtedly passed.

As the Post´s Hiatt stated at the end of his column; "McConnell has the word "leader" before his name. There was a time when that word suggested a responsibility -- not always, maybe not even most of the time, but sometimes, on issues of true national importance -- to put public interest ahead of partisan consideration. For McConnell, evidently that's not what the word means anymore."

As I said, leaders like Republican Senator McConnell continue to make my case that what they say in public "may not mean squat", and the GOP´s first priority is for this president to fail and to take the American middle-class with him.

Copyright G.Ater 2010

Follow me on Twitter: gater01