Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the mics today to layout what it would take to get him behind the debt ceiling increase just about everyone in Washington agrees is necessary to avoid serious economic problems. McConnell made it official: Republicans are not going to give the White House a clean vote on the debt limit, and they’re going to demand “significant” cuts to Medicare and Medicaid obligations to get one done.
As was his partner in the Republican leadership of the House earlier on Thursday, McConnell was cryptic about just what exactly it will take for him to raise the debt level. But he made one thing clear: the country’s expensive health care entitlements are very much on the table.
That’s not all McConnell wants. Right away, he said, the Democrats will have to agree to cut the amount of money in the discretionary spending budget over the next three years. That would mean cuts to agency budgets and government programs potentially across the board.
McConnell said he needs the cuts to be “significant.”
“We need to address the problem,” he said, “a $14 trillion debt [with] the size of our economy makes it looks a lot like Greece.”
He agreed with Democrats that the debt ceiling needs to be addressed by mid-July, so that doesn’t give much time for legislators to work out the “significant” changes to Medicare and Medicaid McConnell wants (he said that Social Security will not be part of the entitlement discussion for now.)
But McConnell played coy on what kind of changes to the programs he wants. He refused to say exactly what he’s looking for, but brought up the Debt Commission’s recommendations several times when it came to the programs. Those didn’t sit well with Democrats the first time they were proposed, and it’s not likely they’ll go over very well as part of a debt ceiling deal either.
McConnell did close the door on one contentious debate in talks: social issues. During the budget negotiations that almost ended in government shutdown earlier this year, Republicans used the battle to score points for their social conservative base, tying abortion, women’s health funding and other issues to the deal. Some Republicans had hoped something similar would happen this time around with the House GOP’s controversial new abortion funding measure, known as H.R. 3.
But asked by a reporter if social issues would be part of the debate over the debt ceiling, McConnell was pretty unequivocal. McConnell’s press conference came after a meeting with President Obama about the debt ceiling at the White House.
“This is about reducing spending,” McConnell said. “No one ever even thought about [social issues]. This is about reducing spending.”
