Mitch McConnell
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding yesterday’s failed vote on the Green New Deal:
“Yesterday my Democratic colleagues in this body offered the American people a crystal-clear picture of what the Democratic Party stands for in 2019 -- and whom it represents. Nearly all of our Democratic colleagues wrapped their arms around the radical policy they’ve marketed as the ‘Green New Deal.’ I’m sure we’ll be hearing carefully-crafted spin about the transparent political maneuvering behind voting ‘present’ instead of voting ‘yes.’ Not exactly Profiles in Courage.
“I am also certain that we’ll hear more indignant claims that I somehow sabotaged the legislation they say they support by bringing it up for a vote. That’s a fascinating sight in the Senate: The co-sponsors of a policy complaining bitterly that they had to go on the record and actually vote for a bill they supposedly support. But go on the record they did.
“They can call it voting ‘present.’ They can call it voting ‘yes.’ But when every single Senate Democrat running for president is signed on as a co-sponsor. When all the energy and momentum in the Democratic Party is behind this. When just a tiny handful of Democrat senators could bring themselves to vote against it on the floor. What we have is a Democratic Party that is fixated on satisfying the far-left, even at the cost of crushing working-class and middle-class American life as we know it.
“Yesterday, the vast majority of Senate Democrats could not dismiss something as crazy as ending the production of American oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy within a decade.Senate Democrats could not dismiss something as ludicrous as a federally-mandated overhaul of every building in America to meet the ‘greenness’ standards of Washington bureaucrats.Senate Democrats could not reject a plan to take more control over where Americans choose to live, how they choose to get around, and how they earn a living. Senate Democrats could not even reject a plan that, according to rough estimates, could raise families’ utility bills by hundreds of dollars a month and cost the U.S. government more than the entire 2017 GDP of the whole world. They couldn’t vote against that.
“American manufacturing, American agriculture, the industries, jobs, houses, farms, buildings, and cars that make up daily life for millions of working Americans. Democrats want Washington D.C. to declare war on all of it. Because it doesn’t comply with the latest fashions in Brooklyn and San Francisco. They want to march the entire country toward extreme environmentalist goals that even President Obama’s former Secretary of Energy has dismissed as impossible.
“This is what the Democratic Party of 2019 has decided to become. Remember, their last presidential nominee bragged after her loss that at least she’d won all the places in America that are ‘optimistic, diverse, dynamic, [and] moving forward.’ We can fill in the blanks and see how they view all the other places that millions of Americans call home. Those places that just aren’t enlightened enough to vote for Democrats.
“Places where farm jobs and factory jobs really matter. Places where expensive high-speed rail and electric cars and trucks simply won’t get the job done. Places where soaring electric bills represent a kitchen-table crisis and not just a minor inconvenience. Places that are actually home to the workers who would be -- as the resolution breezily puts it -- ‘affected by the transition.’ In other words, jobs shipped overseas and workers out in the cold. In Democrats’ eyes, all of us in these places are just backwards and out-of-date. Our lives need to be transformed by Washington D.C. bureaucrats whether we like it or not.
“The disruption isn’t just limited to environmental and energy issues. There are so many more things Washington Democrats want to get their hands on. Democrats are pushing a ‘Medicare for None’ scheme that would make it unlawful to provide the private health insurance policies that American families rely on and force everyone into a brand new government scheme designed here in D.C. It is ironic that this approach would mean long wait lists for people with pre-existing conditions and cause over 180 million Americans to lose the coverage they chose and rely on.Republicans are dedicated to protecting Americans with preexisting conditions. Republicans are the ones fighting for American families as they try to navigate the unaffordable wreckage of Obamacare.
“So the story is the same on every issue: Democrats aren’t interested in security and stability for American families. They are interested in Washington D.C. redesigning middle-class Americans’ lives from scratch so they conform better with left-wing dreams. Forty-plus of our Democratic colleagues -- including all their presidential candidates -- could not even bring themselves to vote against the obviously absurd socialist wish list we considered yesterday. This is what the modern Democratic Party wants to be. These are their plans for the country. At least the American people are certainly offered a clear contrast.”