{"id":246,"date":"2013-10-19T05:21:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-19T05:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=246"},"modified":"2013-10-19T05:21:45","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T05:21:45","slug":"kentucky-senator-minority-leader-mitch-mcconnell-calls-on-senate-democrats-to-end-the-shutdown-they-created","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2013\/10\/19\/kentucky-senator-minority-leader-mitch-mcconnell-calls-on-senate-democrats-to-end-the-shutdown-they-created\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Calls on Senate Democrats to End the Shutdown They Created"},"content":{"rendered":"

By STEPHANIE PENN\u00a0<\/strong>
\nSENATOR MCCONNELL – CONGRESSIONAL STAFFER<\/em>
\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor today regarding the unsuccessful rollout of Obamacare and the need for Senate Democrats to negotiate a solution to end the federal shutdown that they created:<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, if it wasn\u2019t clear earlier this week why Republicans were asking to delay Obamacare, it should be pretty clear to everybody this morning. The rollout of this thing made a trip to the DMV look like a good time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word of the day was \u2018glitch.\u2019 And you could probably explain one or two of those glitches away. Maybe three. But not glitches in Nebraska and Maryland and Florida and Wisconsin and Illinois and Kentucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot glitches all across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cKentuckians who tried to log in yesterday got a message that read: \u2018Server Error.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me translate that: it didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, if the plural of anecdote is data, it seems to me the plural of glitch has to be systemic failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the law that Washington Democrats were so adamant about unveiling yesterday, they were willing to shut down the government over it.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of agreeing to a couple of common-sense proposals related to this law, they stuck to their absolutist position: 100 percent of Obamacare, when and how they want it, no matter what.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is, of course, unless the President thinks you\u2019re one of the \u2018chosen few\u2019 who deserves a special break.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, basically, Washington Democrats shut down the government because they didn\u2019t think middle-class Americans deserved the same kind of treatment as their employers, and because they didn\u2019t think Congress should have to follow the same rules on the Obamacare exchanges as everybody else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were fair things to ask for. They were reasonable. And if the Democrats who run Washington could have brought themselves to be that sensible, they would have voted to keep the government open.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the end, they got their shutdown, which they apparently think will help them politically. And they held onto their absolutist position on Obamacare \u2014 regardless of the consequences for American families.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd two days into this thing, they still refuse to budge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President reiterated again yesterday he\u2019s not interested in talking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Majority Leader has made it clear he\u2019s not interested in talking either.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s shot down just about every attempt to engage in serious discussions \u2013 with the House, or anyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook: This week, Washington Democrats had a choice \u2013 defend basic principles of fairness when it comes to Obamacare, or shut down the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey chose the latter. It was wrong. And it\u2019s time for them to start finding solutions, to start talking, and put the interests of their constituents ahead of the interests of their party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: This article was received from the Office of Senator Mitch McConnell. Its contents do not reflect the opinions of the Cento or the Cento staff.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By STEPHANIE PENN\u00a0 SENATOR MCCONNELL – CONGRESSIONAL STAFFER Washington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor today regarding the unsuccessful rollout of Obamacare and the need for Senate Democrats to negotiate a solution to end the federal shutdown that they created: \u201cWell, if it wasn\u2019t clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}