“All Impeachment, All The Time” As Democrats Block Legislation
‘Only in this town, only in Washington D.C., does anybody think it’s okay for our armed forces to go unfunded... and a major trade deal to go unpassed... because Democrats are too busy hosting a panel of law professors to criticize President Trump on television.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the week’s business:
‘For weeks now, Republicans have been asking Democrats to take off their impeachment blinders and let Congress legislate for the American people. We’ve argued that American families deserve better than this partisan paralysis where Democrats obsess over impeachment and obstruct everything else.
‘This very morning, Speaker Pelosi gave a speech on national television to push forward her rushed and partisan impeachment process. Not one word on the outstanding legislation the American people actually need. Nothing on the USMCA, or the NDAA, or funding for our armed forces. It’s all impeachment, all the time.
‘Only in this town, only in Washington D.C., does anybody think it’s okay for our armed forces to go unfunded... and a major trade deal to go unpassed... because Democrats are too busy hosting a panel of law professors to criticize President Trump on television.
‘The Kentuckians I represent cannot believe our military commanders are being denied certainty, our men and women in uniform are being denied stable funding, and 176,000 new American jobs are being held up — all because Democrat leadership thinks there’s more political advantage in obstruction than in doing their jobs.
‘Well, the servicemembers and personnel in the Kentucky National Guard, and at Fort Campbell, Fort Knox, and the Blue Grass Army Depot, aren’t going to simply stop doing their jobs. They’re counting on us to pass critical defense legislation that reforms housing and spousal-employment programs… invests in construction, readiness, and modernization... and locks in the largest pay raise in decade.
‘These bills touch every single state. And of course there are major national and international issues at stake as well. But Democrats are still holding the NDAA hostage for a partisan wish-list that is meant to appease trial lawyers, public-sector unions, and their own far left base.
‘They’re holding up the NDAA over unrelated, non-germane left-wing wish-list items. And meanwhile, the Speaker and the Democratic Leader are withholding their assent from important bipartisan provisions like the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which has previously passed both Houses and has been modified to resolve all concerns by the committees of jurisdiction.
‘Unlike the Democratic Leader’s rhetoric on Syria in recent weeks, this bill would actually do something to stand up for the Syrian people and hold Assad accountable. So I hope the Democratic Leader will allow this important demonstration of our support for the Syrian people to go forward.
‘Now in the meantime, as if to underscore that Democrats’ top priority is performance art for coastal elites and not the people’s business, I understand the Speaker of the House spent part of this week in Madrid, talking climate change. She took an international flight to discuss carbon emissions.
‘So the Speaker was in Spain lamenting President Trump’s decision to pull us out of the Paris agreement. Maybe she pitched her conference’s “Green New Deal,” their socialist plan to hurt our economy for American families while bigger emitters like China go roaring on by.
‘As an aside, over the past 15 years the United States’ carbon emissions have actually fallen significantly. We appear to be on track for another decline in 2019. Meanwhile, Paris Agreement signatories like China and India continue to emit more and more every year. China already emits roughly twice as much as the United States and they’re increasing every year.
‘Kentucky and many other states know exactly what happens when Washington Democrats ignore these facts and decide America needs to take on unilateral economic pain for no meaningful change in global emissions. We’re still recovering from Democrats’ last “War on Coal.” We certainly don’t need Speaker Pelosi to promise the Europeans she’ll start a new one.
‘So, working Americans and their families are not well served by Democrats’ political performance art. What they need are results.
‘The only path to results is bipartisan legislation. And fortunately, it’s a well-trodden one. There are 58 consecutive annual defense authorizations to prove it… and there’s a bipartisan, bicameral agreement that the Speaker and the Democratic Leader signed just a few months to help them find their way back to the table.
‘I hope they do so soon.’
Related Issues: USMCA, America's Military, Syria, NDAA
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