Dems Respond To McConnell Taking Credit For Economic Growth: ‘Hahahahahahahahahahaha’

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., talks about his agenda for a GOP-controlled Congress during an interview with The Associated Press at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. McCon... Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., talks about his agenda for a GOP-controlled Congress during an interview with The Associated Press at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. McConnell says approving the Keystone XL pipeline will top the Senate agenda in January. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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The way Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sees it, recent good news on the American economy is directly linked to the fact that there’s a new Republican majority in Congress.

“After so many years of sluggish growth, we’re finally starting to see some economic data that can provide a glimmer of hope; the uptick appears to coincide with the biggest political change of the Obama administration’s long tenure in Washington: the expectation of a new Republican Congress,” McConnell said on Wednesday. “So this is precisely the right time to advance a positive, pro-growth agenda.”

The comment provoked snide chuckles from Democrats. The Democratic National Committee emailed out a statement with the subject line “DNC to McConnell: Hahahahahahahahahahaha.”

Here’s the statement from DNC Communications Director Mo Elleithee:

Hahahahahahahahahahaha. That Mitch McConnell is one funny guy. He likes to remind people all the time that he’s not a scientist. Now we know he’s not a mathematician or an economist either. The fact is, under President Obama we’ve had 57 straight months of private sector job growth leading to nearly 11 million jobs added. All Republicans have given us is a government shutdown that cost the economy $24 billion. I get why he wants to take credit for the economic recovery. But maybe he should first do something to help contribute to it.

Some Democrats lately have been eager to highlight that the unemployment rate has fallen below 6 percent. Obama himself highlighted some of the economic recovery at his end of year press conference in December (that is, before Republicans took control of the Senate). He said that “the steps that we took early on to rescue our economy and rebuild it on a new foundation helped make 2014 the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s.”

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