McConnell Doesn’t Expect To Tackle Entitlements In 2018

United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media after attending a meeting with US President Donald J. Trump on repealing and/or replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA... United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky) speaks to the media after attending a meeting with US President Donald J. Trump on repealing and/or replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as ObamaCare at The White House in Washington, DC, July 19, 2017. Credit: Chris Kleponis / CNP - NO WIRE SERVICE - Photo by: Chris Kleponis/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday morning crushed House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) dream of making cuts to programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in 2018 now that Congress has passed tax cuts.

McConnell said that the Senate would not be able to pass legislation making changes to those programs without support from Democrats, making it unlikely that his chamber would attempt to pass major legislation addressing those programs.

He made the comments during an interview with Axios’ Mike Allen, who asked McConnell where infrastructure and “entitlement reform” fall on his 2018 to-do list.

“I think the Democrats are not going to be interested in entitlement reform, so I would not expect to see that on the agenda,” McConnell replied. “And what the Democrats are willing to do is important because in the Senate, with rare exceptions, like the tax bill, we have to have Democratic involvement.”

He added that it’s more likely the Senate would tackle infrastructure since both parties are interested in such legislation.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for milt69 milt69 says:

    Should I take these as words of reason, or a repug ploy or deception??

  2. “Maybe they will forget or forgive us the ‘Tax Reform’ ?”

  3. There is nothing to be tackled, except for raising the top income withholding for both, you fucking hillbilly.

  4. Avatar for marby marby says:

    Well, Mitch is evil but not stupid. He won’t want to take on Medicare or Social Security (old people vote) at least until he sees what happens in the midterms.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

127 more replies

Participants

Avatar for valgalky23 Avatar for playitagainrowlf Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for marby Avatar for clunkertruck Avatar for bobatkinson Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for becca656 Avatar for inversion Avatar for murgatroid Avatar for darrtown Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for tena Avatar for muddylee Avatar for clauscph Avatar for dommyluc Avatar for tsp Avatar for professorpoopypants Avatar for rickjones Avatar for milt69 Avatar for ncgirl741 Avatar for stephanie1954 Avatar for gromilini Avatar for calterpk

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: