Mitch McConnell Vows to Block Biden’s Entire Agenda Just to Be a Dick

Something you’ve probably picked up on by now is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell literally cares about nothing but amassing and maintaining power. Whereas even some of the worst people in Washington typically have something they care about beyond power for power’s sake, or a set of beliefs to guide them, the Kentucky lawmaker truly has none. “Give up,” someone who knows McConnell well told The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer last year when she set out to find “the larger principles or sense of purpose that animates” the senator. “You can look and look for something more in him, but it isn’t there. I wish I could tell you that there is some secret thing that he really believes in, but he doesn’t.”

Perhaps to remind people that, despite being an elected official ostensibly sent to D.C. to work on behalf of the Americans who pay his salary, he doesn’t give a fuck about anything but his own interests, McConnell on Wednesday told reporters that while he could spend his time helping to end the pandemic, or aiding the economic recovery, or stopping mass shootings, he’s actually got something else in mind: blocking Joe Biden’s entire agenda. “One hundred percent of my focus is standing up to this administration,” the Kentucky Republican said at a press conference in his state in response to questions about fighting among House Republicans. “What we have in the United States Senate is total unity from Susan Collins to Ted Cruz in opposition to what the new Biden administration is trying to do to this country,” he said, referring to his colleagues from Maine and Texas. What sort of things has Biden proposed that McConnell is dead set on opposing? In a word, everything. Per The Wall Street Journal:

Democrats passed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill with no Republican support earlier this year and have proposed more than $4 trillion in additional spending on infrastructure, antipoverty, and education proposals. Republicans have said they are willing to engage in talks on a narrow infrastructure plan focused on roads, bridges, and broadband, and some GOP lawmakers outlined a $568 billion infrastructure framework. But they have rejected Mr. Biden’s more extensive spending plans. Proposals supported by Mr. Biden on gun laws, voting rights, and D.C. statehood have also drawn little GOP interest. They passed the House but are unlikely to progress in the Senate, where most legislation needs 60 votes to advance.

In his comments in Kentucky, Mr. McConnell repeated GOP contentions that Mr. Biden ran as a centrist promising to reach across the aisle, but once in office has hewn too closely to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. “We’re confronted with severe challenges from a new administration and a narrow majority of Democrats in the House and a 50-50 Senate to turn America into a socialist country, and that’s 100% of my focus,” he said.

Yes, it’s true that Republicans have thrown a bunch of hissy fits about Biden supposedly abandoning his promise to work in a bipartisan manner, but that’s just a tad bit rich coming from people who have vowed to block everything the president wants to get done. Which, of course, is nothing new for McConnell:

Asked about McConnell’s comments, Biden laughed and brushed them off, telling reporters, “Look, he said that in our last administration…he was going to stop everything, and I was able to get a lot done with him.” (While that may be true, there was also a lot McConnell and Republicans managed to block that still reverberates today.) Stressing that the administration still welcomes Republican engagement, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki suggested Wednesday that it’s not very difficult to see who in this scenario is actually doing the job he was sent to Washington to do, and who is just a dick. “I guess the contrast for people to consider is, 100% of our focus is on delivering relief for the American people, and getting the pandemic under control and putting people back to work,” she said during her daily press briefing. “The door to the Oval Office is open.”

If you would like to receive the Levin Report in your inbox daily, click here to subscribe.

Insurrection suspect blames Fox News lies on his decision to storm the Capitol

Published at Thu, 06 May 2021 23:13:37 +0000

Article source: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/05/mitch-mcconnell-joe-biden-obstruction