Mitch McConnell: 'We Have a Voter Mandate Not to Raise Taxes'

[kentuck]

<snip>
In the wake of President Barack Obama's electoral victory, gleeful Democrats believe that the impending "fiscal cliff" has Republicans trapped into finally accepting higher tax rates. But as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sits for an interview in his Capitol office 48 hours after the election, one thing is certain: He is in no way chastened by Tuesday's results. If Mr. Obama wants fiscal hand-to-hand combat, he will get it.

"Let me put it very clearly," says the five-term Republican senator from Kentucky. "I am not willing to raise taxes to turn off the sequester. Period." On Jan. 1, Washington faces both a huge tax increase and an automatic spending cut known as the "sequester," which could tip the economy back into recession. A newly emboldened President Obama is likely to take his soak-the-rich case straight to the people, I remind the senator. The political pressure to capitulate could become intense.

"Look, he may think it would be helpful to his presidency to continue to divide and demonize us," says Mr. McConnell. "But my answer will still be short and firm: No. We won't agree to any tax increases that will hurt the economy."

This isn't to say that next week, when the lame-duck congressional session begins to negotiate some kind of budget solution, taxes are off the table. Mr. McConnell is a realist. Republicans are willing to be "flexible" on raising revenues but, he hastens to add, only "in the context of broad-based, comprehensive tax reform." He's open to prying more out of the rich by closing tax loopholes. But he and his caucus of 45 Republicans want lower, not higher, rates.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324894104578109000926531558.html?mod=opinion_newsreel

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. You don't have a mandate for diddly-shit, Senator Turtle Lips.

In case you haven't noticed yet, your troglodyte party lost the election.

[kentuck]

5. Would someone please tell him that to his face??

The President ran on raising taxes on the wealthy. He won. You lost Mitch. He has a mandate according to many of your own Republican friends. So , please, stop the crap. We have had enough from you.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

43. 7 out of 10 support taxing those over 1 million @ 30%

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/business/the-great-american-tax-debate.html

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/04/16/rel4c.pdf

[polmaven]

15. As well as losing

seats in both the Senate and the House. I wonder what his definition of "mandate" is!

[TheKentuckian]

31. That means whenever his party is declared the winner, be it by a single stolen vote, shady maneuver,

, procedural shenanigans, hook, or crook.

He'd spin having nine seats and would use every trick in the book to use that pitiful nine to bog up progress to the full extent of that limited capability.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. You got shit from the voters, You serve the 1% !!!

Go Ashley Judd !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

30. need to raise taxes on the 1%

[ThomThom]

41. which will not hurt the recovery

as much as they believe it will history tells us that taking a few bucks from those that got too many to spend will in fact boost the economy.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

42. Tax those earning above 1 million per year

Obama had proposed this

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/business/the-great-american-tax-debate.html

[Andy823]

3. His "voter" mandate

He signed Grover Norquist's pledge, and Grover voted so I there you have his "voter mandate"! One voter controls the entire republican party, now that just isn't reality!

[Dalai_1]

6. Exactly! I have no idea how he pluralized that statement

[Panasonic]

4. Uh no, Turtle, you don't.

You fucking liar.

Gerrymandered districts SAVED the House for the Republicans - but guess what? Not going to happen in 2014, 2016, 2018 or 2020. The voter intention was to REPLACE the teabaggers. Unfortunately, the other team succeeded. This is not going to happen again.

And then it'll be gerrymandered back to FAVORING the Democrats for a while, until 2030, when there's a perfect balance.

But of course, by 2030, Republicans will cease to exist from our society.

[aquart]

33. Honestly, that depends on Dems not having mid-term hissy fits.

And 2010 proved we can't depend on that.

Also, as shortsighted as Republican thinking. A one-party country? Democracy loses all.

[ClusterFreak]

7. Earth to Yurtle the Turtle: You're not calling the shots!

You say "I am not willing" to raise taxes. You. You're not willing to raise them. On the richest 2 percent.

Well buddy boy... we poll tested the idea a few days ago...and umm....the people are behind the Prez.

So suck on it.

[burnsei sensei]

8. McConnell: stupid shit.

"Let me put it very clearly," says the five-term Republican senator from Kentucky. "I am not willing to raise taxes to turn off the sequester. Period."

You are not willing?
Who the hell said you rule the country, you imperious, presumptuous bastard?

[Kolesar]

9. House Speaker has no leverage on the Bush tax cuts. We should stop taking him seriously.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/11/boehner_and_the_fiscal_cliff_the_house_speaker_is_bluffing_about_the_bush.html

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Republican Murder-Suicide:

Don't laugh, suckers, You're next!

[Lasher]

11. He lost seats in the Senate.

And his party lost the presidency. That is a mandate to STFU.

[Ilsa]

20. Rec this post!!! nt

[brewens]

12. We'll see how that works out for you "Turtlehead"!

http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/turtle-head

[appleannie1]

13. A snapping turtle is not only better looking, it has more brains.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

14. But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle

is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.

"War Propaganda", in volume 1, chapter 6 of Mein Kampf (1925), by Adolf Hitler

[madinmaryland]

16. Heh! Turtleman... You are the MINORITY leader who is a party that lost in both the House, Senate,

and the White House.

Go crawl back into your shell.

[elleng]

17. Gov't has a mandate to BALANCE revenues with expenses,

which is what PrezO has been working on doing. HOPE these intransigent s.o.b.s get their heads handed to them in 2014 if they don't come to a reasonable agreement expeditiously.

[jp11]

18. Voter Mandate doesn't mean a few people eligible to vote gave you a lot of

money or promised you a lot of money to do their bidding.

[lunatica]

19. He reminds me of the abusive husband telling his wife she's making him beat her

It's always her fault.

[lastlib]

21. Mitch, lay off the turtle chow, it's making you hallucinate!

your only mandate is to quit wetting yourself and join with the President in a real solution to our economic problems. WE ARE NOT GOING THERE as a nation. Come out of your fantasy bubble and get this done before you hurt someone.

[Barack_America]

22. The voters gave McConnell a mandate to go fuck himself.

They gave Obama a mandate to ensure the super-rich are paying at least the same rates as the middle class.

[hfojvt]

23. perhaps that moron does not realize

that Obama can raise taxes without any help from him.

We don't need your agreement to raise taxes, you jacka$$hole.

We need your agreement to CUT taxes.

So what you are really telling all the voters, is that you will not agree to tax cuts.

If you don't give us that it will be YOU that is increasing taxes.

That's the way I see it, and that's how I will tell the voters.

[pipewrench]

24. love the comment section

finger pointing and denial is running wild.

[Angry Dragon]

25. "We won't agree to any tax increases that will hurt the economy."

There is the loophole right there ........
Raising taxes on the more wealthy and the higher incomes will not hurt the economy
It will help the economy
Tell the republicans it is time for them to pay for the two wars that they started that they did not pay for
that is only fair.


Add: this tortoise has never worked a private sector job, always a government job or another. Been in the Senate for 30 years. He is the man that has screwed up the system. It is time for this fucker to fix it. His way has not worked, because it is not working now. It is time to tell these old timers it is time to get off the pot and get something done for this country and its people. Because it seems he does not know how to fix it, because if he did it would have been fixed long ago.

[liberal N proud]

26. He must have a brain the size of a turtle.

[ReRe]

37. Me and Mr ReRe...

...have always called him "thumb-with-a-face-on-it."

[BainsBane]

27. You have a mandate not to raise taxes on 98%.

The other 2% can afford it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

28. The only way Mitch McConnell has a mandate

is if he's bi-curious.

[Live and Learn]

29. Then I guess you have a voter mandate to slash the military budget too

Senator A$$hat. Expect a visit from Cheney and his KBR and Blackwater friends about that.

[gollygee]

32. He doesn't have a mandate for jack shit

His party lost. LOST. lost lost lost lost lost. The level of delusion is just weird.

[RomneyLies]

34. Teh fuckers will let it fail

and then blame Obama for their failure and bring in Jeb Bush in 2016 as the GOP savior of the economy.

[quakerboy]

35. House republicans lost the popular vote

They won seats on a technicality, but they lost the popular vote.

Also, they shouldn't "agree to any tax increases that will hurt the economy"

Fortunately no one on the left has proposed any. Romney er al are the only ones to do that.

[ReRe]

36. There has got to be a way....

... to wake this man up. And I hope and pray that Obama and Reid can do it ASAP. Is
he totally bonkers? "We have a Voter Mandate to not raise taxes." ???? Where on God's green earth is he getting that? Is it just his "bigger-than-life" ego, or is he actually senile? I think it's actually both. Here's a question for everyone: Has there ever been a sitting Rep or Sen declared insane/senile and removed from Congress permanently? If not, maybe he should be the first. It's like he doesn't realize there was an election and if anyone got a mandate it was the POTUS, not that GD hateful bunch they call the Republican Party which is now tearing itself apart.

[upi402]

38. "Look, he may think it would be helpful to his presidency to continue to divide and demonize us,"

They accuse us of what they are up to...

And so it goes, as a great journalist says.

[jaysunb]

39. I'm betting Kentucky will have a new Senator in 2014. nt

[City Lights]

40. No, Mitchie, your side LOST. GET OVER IT!

You don't get a mandate when you LOSE!

[bkkyosemite]

44. It's called reverse psychology from a man who needs a psychologist.

[spanone]

45. mittch, you got jack shit