"The Amazingly Two-Faced Mitch McConnell"
The Amazingly Two-Faced Mitch McConnell
by Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/15/the-amazingly-two-faced-mitch-mcconnell.html
"SNIP.....................
Misrepresentations were numerous, but lets just zero in on student loans. Grimes raised the issue and noted the rising costs of the loans, which Congress hasnt addressed. McConnell responded that the Senate had taken care of the issue in a bipartisan fashion. But it didnt. The Elizabeth Warren-sponsored bill failed in the Senate by four votes, getting only 56 yeas but needing 60 to end debate and make it to the floor. Two Republicans voted with the Democrats, but McConnell wasnt one of them. And McConnell said publicly at the time that he was against Warrens plan because it was designed to fail since it would raise taxes on rich people.
McConnell similarly talked out of both sides of his mouth on the minimum wage, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and other issues. And he, too, dodged a question, and it was one thats rather more important than the one Grimes dodged about whether she had voted for President Obama. McConnell wouldnt say whether climate change is real and whether humans contribute to it, so if he wins, Kentuckians will have the pleasure of knowing who their senator voted for in 2012 while he spends the next six years positioning himself to the right of Exxon-Mobil (which at least supports a carbon tax) and blocking any attempt to do anything about global warming.
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There was one event during this campaign season when McConnell did tell his audience the truth. But that didnt happen in Kentucky in front of voters. It happened over the summer in California, at the St. Regis Monarch Bay Resort, where rooms run upwards of $500 a night, at a gathering put together by the Koch brothers. McConnell has been saying on the trail that if he wins and the GOP takes the Senate, hell open up the amendment process, implying that hed permit votes on issues Democrats wanted to pushnotably, of course, raising the minimum wage.
But behind closed doors at the Koch event, McConnell said the opposite, promising the 1 percenters that, should they win, his Republicans are not going to be debating all these gosh darn proposals. Thats all we do in the Senate is vote on things like raising the minimum wage [inaudible]cost the country 500,000 new jobs; extending unemploymentthats a great message for retirees; uh, the student-loan package the other day, thats just going to make things worse, uh.
.......................SNIP"