Mitch McConnell Quotations

It took us in this country 11 years to get from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution.

Today, Democrats not only have the White House; they have the Senate too. So we have to be realistic about what we can and cannot achieve, while at the same recognizing that realism should never be confused with capitulation.

While other state governments stiff their vendors, close parks, delay tax refunds, and ignore unacceptably poor service levels, Indiana state employees are setting national standards for efficiency.

Are we still a country that takes risks, that innovates, that believes anything is possible? Or are we a country that is resigned to whatever liberty the government decides to dish out?

We're living under the Obama economy. Any CEO in America with a record like this after three years on the job would be graciously shown the door. This president blames the managers instead. He blames the folks on the shop floor. He blames the weather.

We hear the stories every day now: the father who puts on a suit every morning and leaves the house so his daughter doesn't know he lost his job, the recent college grad facing up to the painful reality that the only door that's open to her after four years of study and a pile of debt is her parents'. These are the faces of the Obama economy.

And this year, when we end the cruel, defeatist practice of passing children who cannot read into fourth grade, and when our most diligent students begin to graduate from high school in 11 years, and get a head start on college costs with the dollars they earned through their hard work, others will take notice of Indiana yet again.

We need to strengthen and save Social Security for today's workers. If we don't act now, this system, born out of the New Deal, will become a bad deal.

The new troops in Iraq need to be Iraqi troops.

Things happen in American politics in the political center. If the President will meet us in the center, there are things we can accomplish.

For four years, Barack Obama has been running from the nation's problems. He hasn't been working to earn reelection. He's been working to earn a spot on the PGA tour.

The debt they ran up in the first year of the Obama administration is bigger than the last four years of the Bush combined.

America is about to turn the page on Barack Obama's four-year experiment in big government.

The money that goes into Social Security is not the government's money. it's your money. You paid for it.

A reporter asked recently, 'What keeps you up at night?' I replied that I generally sleep well, but if I ever do have trouble, I don't have to count sheep. I count all the states I'm glad I'm not the governor of.

After adding trillions to the debt on big-government policies most Americans didn't ask for and which we couldn't afford, Democratic leaders say they need more money, which they intend to take from small business, even though small businesses create the majority of new jobs.

To call this a recovery is an insult to recoveries.

Mitt Romney has never been resigned to what someone else said was possible. He cut his own path. That's why he believes in his heart that America has a future full of opportunity and hope. And that's why when Mitt Romney looks down the road, he sees a country that's ready for a comeback.

The president feels not only do we need to change these rogue regimes, but even our friendly allies, who really basically have, sort of, benign dictatorships, need to get with the program if they want to have long-term security and prosperity from terrorism.

There is a lot of room for improvement in Social Security. We owe our children the most financially sound system possible. They will have paid into it their entire working lives. They deserve to be protected by it. for our children and grandchildren.

By their own admission, leaders of the Republican Revolution of 1994 think their greatest mistake was overlooking the power of the veto. They gave the impression they were somehow in charge when they weren't.

The bill that job creators and out-of-work Americans need us to pass is the one that ensures taxes won't go up - one that says Americans and small-business owners won't get hit with more bad news at the end of the year.

The White House has a choice: They can change course, or they can double down on a vision of government that the American people have roundly rejected.

The fact is, if our primary legislative goals are to repeal and replace the health spending bill; to end the bailouts; cut spending; and shrink the size and scope of government, the only way to do all these things it is to put someone in the White House who won't veto any of these things.

No one is anywhere near 60, and any measure in the Senate that is even remotely controversial now require you to get 60, not just 51, ... So I think just as the situation is now, it will require bipartisan cooperation to advance any agenda." ()

More young people believe they'll see a U.F.O. than that they'll see their own Social Security benefits.

If the administration wants cooperation, it will have to begin to move in our direction.

He never likes to alienate anybody. But a Senate leader has to lead, and he has to be pretty direct and tough on people." ()

I think the issues will be the creation of a Palestinian state, advocating letting children sue their parents, advocating socialized medicine -- all the positions that the first lady has taken over the years, ... Meet The Press." ()

I think we ought to wrap up our business and go out and let the American people tell us which way they'd like the country to go, ... Meet the Press." ()

I think that's the most cynical view," ()

I think the message is clear that there is substantial opposition to this measure as it leaves the Senate and I think that is an important message to send both to the House and to the White House," ()

I think there are a whole lot of Democrats who never had any idea what was in this bill, at least this year they are reading it." ()

President Bush gave an outstanding speech tonight filled with optimism for the future and a determination to tackle the challenges that lie ahead." ()

We can't go to the donor conference ... and ask countries around the world to contribute in the form of grants if we have just decided to send a bill to Iraq, thereby encumbering their oil, which is their only resource, to pay us back in the future," ()

The politics of tobacco have changed, and changed dramatically for the worse for our tobacco farmers," ()

We're not quietly killing it; we're proudly killing it. We're not apologizing for killing this unconstitutional bill." ()

You cannot create a level playing field; it is impossible," ()

Tonight he demonstrated he is still leading America, as he laid out a bold agenda to move our nation forward." ()

Bolton's exactly what the U.N. needs at this point. The president's right on the mark in picking him." ()

Bring on the debate. We're ready for it." ()

There's no question that the people of New York have to decide whether or not they think it's appropriate for someone from Arkansas to represent them in the Senate, ... And finally, there's the question of all the trips -- about $220,000 owed to the federal government for 11 trips to New York this year." ()

The Senate last week decided it wanted to go down this road, so my view is if the majority of the Senate wants to go down this path, let's make sure it's effective," ()

That's not the message we want to send." ()

Although the Department of Defense's report was overdue, it appears they are doing what the law instructed them to do and that is to spend money at Blue Grass to dispose of these weapons as Congress intended," ()

as was the courtesy during the Clinton years." ()

For almost 20 years, ... Craig and the (Chemical Weapons Working Group) have been invaluable in their efforts to ensure that the millions of pounds of chemical weapons stored at Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot are destroyed as safely and expeditiously as possible. In large part due to their efforts, we are closer than we have ever been to taking tangible steps towards chemical weapons disposal." ()

I'm very proud of killing this kind of legislation," ()

I looked at his voting record, and it's considerably to the left of mine. And I don't consider myself a hard right conservative. So Rick is a classic Northeastern moderate Republican." ()

By investing in a U.S. War Bond, patriotic citizens will have an opportunity to make a direct contribution to the war against the scourge of terrorism and provide the much-needed resources for the effort to rescue the injured, rebuild the broken, and retaliate against the enemy," ()

Certainly there will be some areas of disagreement, ... and I expect campaign finance will be one of the areas of disagreement." ()

Hopefully, the commission will identify additional methods to improve U.S. security but, forgive me for not being terribly optimistic, I feel the commission has lost sight of its goal and has become a political casualty of the electoral hunting season," ()

Americans don't think we should be raising taxes on anybody, especially in the middle of a recession.

This heinous crime should be of particular concern to all of us. . . . I know my colleagues will agree that the murder of Americans overseas cannot go unpunished. I will continue to closely follow developments in this case[.]

Syria and Iran have always had a pretty tight relationship, and it looks to me like they just cooked up a press release to put out to sort of restate the obvious. They're both problem countries; we know that. And this doesn't change anything.

Given the scope of these programs, it's understandable that many would be concerned about issues related to privacy. But what's difficult to understand is the motivation of somebody who intentionally would seek to warn the nation's enemies of lawful programs created to protect the American people. And I hope that he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The worst day of my political life was when President George W. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law in the early part of his first Administration.

The administration still wants to govern from the far-left and that's going to produce kind a partisan result here in the Congress.

For everybody who thinks it's warming, I can find somebody who thinks it isn't.

Obama hasn't been working to earn reelection, he's been working to earn a spot on the PGA tour!

Eventually, Americans would be stuck with government-run health care whether they like it or not. That's when the worst scenario would take shape, with Americans subjected to bureaucratic hassles, hours spent on hold waiting for a government service rep to take a call, restrictions on care, and, yes, lifesaving treatment and lifesaving surgeries denied or delayed.

Forcing free market plans to compete with these government-run programs would create an unlevel playing field and inevitably doom true competition...

I'm really proud of this Supreme Court and the way they've been dealing with the issue of First Amendment political speech.

What we do know is that the American people, regardless of how they feel about the abortion issue, don't think that taxpayer money ought to be used to pay for abortions.

I've often wished we had more women in the Senate.

It seems with every new day, we have a new veto threat from the president.

We ought to make sure that the eligibility for entitlements meets the demographics of America.

More women are graduating from college now than men.

It just doesn't occur to an American that someone else will solve their problems. Americans take pride in solving problems for themselves. And if we fail, we get back up and try again. It's what we do. It's who we are.

On the issue of Iraq, it is my hope, and my challenge to my colleagues, that our debate will be based on what is best for the future of our nation and for Iraq, not what's best for a political party or presidential campaign.

I've said repeatedly publicly, and other members have, that until you adjust the eligibility for entitlements, do things like raising the age for Medicare for future beneficiaries. Not for those currently receiving or those about to receive. Have serious means testing for high income people. You know Warren Buffett's always complaining about not paying enough taxes. And what I'm complaining about is we're paying for his Medicare. We ought not to be providing these kinds of benefits for millionaires and billionaires.

Mitt Romney has spent his entire life finding ways to solve problems.

It is time for a leader who will lead.

I'm in favor of doing tax reform, but I think tax reform ought to be revenue neutral as it was back during the [Ronald] Reagan years. We've resolved this issue.

I think the important thing to remember here is that we haven't been attacked again at home since September of 2001.

The minimum wage is mostly an entry-level wage for young people.

We have a debt the size of our economy, which makes us look a lot like Greece.

Tiger Woods and John Edwards had a better year than the Stimulus bill.

I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting. Most of us didn’t think that. What we did learn is this — it’s a hostage that’s worth ransoming. And it focuses the Congress on something that must be done.

It's a shame that the president doesn't embrace the effort to reduce spending. None of us like using situations like the sequester or the debt ceiling or the operation of government to try to engage the president to deal with this.

We all know that Social Security is one of this country's greatest success stories in the 20th century.

It's a shame that we have to use whatever leverage we have in Congress to get the president to deal with the biggest problem confronting our future. And that's our excessive spending.

You'll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think.

Public disclosure of campaign contributions and spending should be expedited so voters can judge for themselves what is appropriate.

Where we are now is we have resolved the revenue issue and the question is what are we going to do about spending. I wish the president would lead us in this discussion rather than putting himself in a position of having to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table to discuss the single biggest issue confronting our future.

As the leader of the Republicans what I'm telling that we elected the president to be president. It's time for him to step up to the plate and lead us in the direction of reducing our excessive spending.

More young people believe they'll see a U.F.O. than that they'll see their own Social Security benefits.

The biggest problem confronting the country is our excessive spending. If we're not going to deal with it now, when are we going to deal with it? And we've watched the government explode over the last four years. We've dealt with the revenue issue.

America is ready to elect its first African American President, especially one with light-skin and and no Negro dialect.

Whether it's before the election or after the election, the principle is the American people are choosing their next president and their next president should pick this Supreme Court nominee.

The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.

Republicans will not be reduced to being the tax collectors for the Obama economy.

All Citizens United did was to level the playing field for corporate speech. We now have, I think, the most free and open system we've had in modern times.

And I don't think the American people believe that George W. Bush, the man who's led us so effectively on the war on terror, would politicize something like this." ()