McConnell Says Yes… to Social Security?!

By Jay Newton-Small | @JNSmall | March 13, 2009 | +

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’s willing, nay anxious, to work with President Obama on one issue. The economy? Nope. Health care? Not at all. McConnell, speaking at a breakfast this morning hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, says he wants to work hand in hand on Social Security reform. Perhaps he’s hoping the Third Rail of American politics will burn Obama the way it did President Bush.

The hour-long session – where McConnell chose to formally stand while some thirty reporters ate – was wide ranging from whether Kentucky or Tennessee bourbon is better (turns out, Tennessee whiskey can’t call itself bourbon, so there’s no contest) to whether Louisville will beat UNC (clearly, folks were scraping the bottom of the barrel). When asked why McConnell – who accused Obama of trying to “Europeanize America” – feels comfortable now attacking the President when for months he’s held his fire, preferring to target the Senate leadership, McConnell replied: Obama has “made proposals. If he’d meet us in the middle he’d find an extraordinary amount of cooperation. The stimulus, the budget, these are not bipartisan moves.”

And McConnell was not shy in criticizing the Obama Administration. “The president’s chief of staff had made it clear that they’re going to use what’s wrong with the economy… to scare us into … passing a 20 or 30 year wish list for their party,” McConnell railed, well as much as McConnell does rail as he’s a pretty even keeled guy.

Other highlights of the breakfast:

EFCA is “Orwellian” and will be “a major, major fight.”

He declined to comment on Jim Bunning.

On Steele: “I think it’s safe to say that Michael Steele has gotten off to a rough start but I think he’ll hit his stride soon.”

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zsmorgan

Me thinks Obama is smart enough not to get anywhere near Social Security any time soon.
Dee in Columbia MD

I wish just once when a Republican refers to Obama’s agenda as a 20 or 30 year Democratic wish list, that a journalist like yourself would ask the question phrased exactly this way so thee is no wiggle room for the old fart. Since everything Obama has put in his budget he promised the voters he would do during the campaign, are you implying that the voters were too stupid to know that this is what he was going to do when he got here?
http://smoothlikeremy.blogspot.com/ sgwhiteinfla

Call me when the Republicans stop being self serving ideologues. Otherwise I couldn’t give a sh*t what their opinion is.
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I have my own idea for a question JNS and I propose you ask it to any and every Republican you interview. Hell it might win you a pulitzer. It should go something like this.
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“Would you consider fixing a problem with a solution that would not be considered conservative if the situation called for it?”
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After some hemming and hawing and some gratuitious “conservative solutions ALWAYS work” comments I am pretty sure you will come up with some quotes for a life time.
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This would be especially helpful the next time that Eric Cantor or Mikey Steele say they are going to think “out of the box”. If that box is conservative ideology I can promise you their thinking will be decided “inside the box”
http://policingwingnutwelfare.blogspot.com/ JJ

“Even keel guy” Should be “even *keeled* guy.”
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“Perhaps he’s hoping the Third Rail of American politics will burn Obama the way it did President Bush.”
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No. I think they hope he succeeds–at screwing it up:
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“Social Security is the soft underbelly of the welfare state,” declares Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth and the Cato Institute. “If you can jab your spear through that, you can undermine the whole welfare state.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/opinion/08krugman.html?_r=1&oref=login&hp
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They’re willing to screw with quite a bit to make Wall Street the “Third Rail of American Politics”, as opposed to the SSA. Big payoff.
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Although, relative to Medicare, it’s a very small problem:
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http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=05&year=2007&base_name=social_security_as_signifier
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Medicare should be dealt with first (and it can be dealt with through healthcare reform). But not if conservatives can help it.
http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

passing a 20 or 30 year wish list for their party
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Elections have consequences.
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Who knew?
choska

My God, Jay, what a bankrupt life you must lead having to spend a precious hour of your life listening to Mitch McConnell demonstrate his utter ignorance.
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You must have done something spectacularly inane to have gotten that assignment this morning. Perhaps you were one of the Republicans in Congress during the 1930s who worked against the New Deal, and then worked against FDR’s support of Lend Lease for the Brits during WWII.
Dee in Columbia MD

JNS)– If you took the long view you would see that these right wing whack jobs, which include McConnell no matter how even keeled he pretends to be, are desperately trying to thwart Obama’s policies. Not because they fear what it will do to the country, no it’s because they fear what the country will do to them.
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It would be in your best interest to report reality rather than the right wing’s fictionalized version. Because rest assured that if Obama succeeds they will spend the next 40 years in wandering in the wilderness just like they did after FDR and you will never have to feel afraid of this whack jobs again.
stuartzechman

The hour-long session – where McConnell chose to formally stand while some thirty reporters ate…highlights of the breakfast
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Jay Newton-Small:
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Why did he choose to stand?
queencersei

McConnell is a total ass. Railed against the spending bill because of all the pork, but had his own earmarks stuffed in there. Just a complete ass.
Jay Newton-Small

JJ — fixed, tnx for outpointing, as Evenlyn Waugh would say.

stuartzechman — I was wondering that myself! He said it was so that everyone could hear him but in all the CWM breakfasts I’ve been to, which have been dozens, I’ve never seen anyone stand while we ate. It was awkward and formal.
JNS
Benny

JNS: “And McConnell was not shy in criticizing the Obama Administration. “The president’s chief of staff had made it clear that they’re going to use what’s wrong with the economy… to scare us into … passing a 20 or 30 year wish list for their party…”
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“Not shy”–o-r willing to lie?
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Unless you have a “clear” quote from Rahm to back-up McConnell’s allegation, it’s a matter of lying—not shyness, and it might behoove you point it out.
Deggjr

Three good days in the stock market and Senator McConnell is going to reform Social Security? Gee, how about waiting until the recent 40+% reductions in 401(k) balances have been restored?
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Why don’t the Republicans reform the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan passed by the Republican Congress and signed by the Republican President in 2003? Social Security was implemented in 1935 along with additional taxes. Those taxes have been greatly increased through the years. There were no tax increases to pay for the Prescription Drug Plan.
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The Republican Party; borrow and borrow; spend and spend; elect and elect.
http://nicewhitelady.blogspot.com/ joyomama

Steele is as likely to hit the road as “hit his stride”.
Art Pepper

And McConnell was not shy in criticizing the Obama Administration
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Why, this is the most surprising piece of news that I’ve read in a very long time.
FlownOver

A follow-up to sz: How does one informally stand?

More to the substance of the post, where exactly (or even generally) does McConnell think we’d be likely to find “the middle?”
stuartzechman

Thank you very much for responding to commentary, Jay Newton-Small; it is very much appreciated.
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Thanks also for this informative post.
Aaron

How does Mitch McConnell define “Social Security reform”?
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To quote Peter Orszag’s CBO presentation, “Health Care:
Capturing the Opportunity in the Nation’s Core Fiscal Challenge,” Social Security is not a problem (slide 2).
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From “Misdiagnosing the problem” (slide 3):
- Most discussions in media: aging and demographics
- Most of the fiscal problem: rising cost per beneficiary, not number or type of beneficiaries
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Mitch McConnell only wants to meddle with things that aren’t broken, it appears.
Ohg Rea Tone

Senator McConnell has to be the single greatest fraud that ever walked the halls of congress. ………………

http://thefiresidepost.com/2009/03/11/conservative-hypocracy-on-earmarks/