Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Fox News Sunday today that a majority of Americans don’t want the Democrats’ health care reform plan to pass — and that if Democrats go forward with reform, they’ll be ignoring “the opinion of the American population.”
And McConnell said he plans to delay the bill with lots of amendments on the Senate floor.
The American people are overwhelmingly telling us, don’t pass it. It’ll be up to whether the Democratic majority wants to listen to the American people or whether they want to pass this anyway, just to basically ignore the opinion of the American population.
Regardless, McConnell said health care reform won’t leave the Senate anytime soon, suggesting that he’ll “delay the process to allow everyone to fully understand what is in the bill.”
This will be on the floor for quite a long time. I think it ought to be on the floor at least as long as it’s been in Harry Reid’s office.
McConnell also said that it would be “very difficult to pass a bill that, in effect, either directly or indirectly provided taxpayer money to pay for abortions,” suggesting the Democrats don’t have 60 votes in the Senate for such a bill.
The Senate minority leader also tried to downplay apparent schisms in the Republican Party, perhaps best illustrated by the GOP civil war in the special NY-23 congressional election, in which the moderate Republican nominee dropped out and backed her Democratic opponent after a number of prominent national Republicans chose to endorse a Conservative Party candidate instead of a moderate Republican.
The division represents “no threat at all,” McConnell said, adding that he sees “enormous enthusiasm” among a variety of candidates because “people believe that getting the Republican nomination means a good chance of winning.”
And Sarah Palin, who seems to be on just about everyone’s mind today with her book release coming this week?
“As big a following as she’s got, you bet she’s got a future,” McConnell said.
Editor’s Note: This post has been added to since it was first published.
Late Update: Here’s the video.
