Conservative grassroots activists are dissatisfied with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for good reason. It is not personal, and it is not simply because he is the majority leader. The anger is based on his history of policy failures and policy betrayals. Most conservatives would love nothing more than to be praising McConnell for his leadership in the Senate, for fulfilling his promises and passing bills to put the country back on the right track.
But under McConnell’s “leadership,” the Republican Party has gone from being “the party of no” to “the party of nothing.” It is mid-October, and no legislation has been passed to fulfill the major Republican campaign promises. When in session, the Senate has worked an average of 2.5 days per week – and they went on vacation two weeks ago.
The majority leader receives an extra $19,400 in this position. McConnell has neither earned that extra money, nor his base salary of $174,000. There is no excuse for this failure of leadership. As we start to wrap up October, “We will do something next year” is laughable. It is called the first 100 days for a reason: something is supposed to get done in the first 100 days, especially with majorities in both the House and the Senate. We are now more than 270 days into President Trump’s administration, and McConnell is talking about the first legislative accomplishment happening next year.
Being a leader sometimes means confronting friends. McConnell can easily get national press coverage and drive a message – if he really wanted to. He should have named names early on. He should have held a press conference with all the major media outlets and said, “If John McCain votes against this bill he recently supported when he knew President Obama would veto it, he is an Obamacare hypocrite. And the same goes with Sens. Heller, Murkowski, Capito, Portman, and Alexander.”
But he did not do this. All along, he has been a low-energy supporter of Obamacare repeal at best. He did virtually no arm-twisting to get senators to support a bill they voted for 15 months prior when Obama was sure to veto it. He set the stage to make it as easy as possible for these senators to flip their votes. He has shown more vigor trying to crush conservatives than in pressuring Republicans to repeal Obamacare. And just last week, he even said he was glad Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was staying in the Senate – a fake Republican who opposes every good Republican idea.
Tax reform must happen in 2017 if Republicans are going to maintain their majorities in the House and Senate. If Mitch McConnell can spearhead it, FreedomWorks will congratulate him on a huge accomplishment. But he’s already moving the goalposts into next year – a delay that will bring disaster to the party. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said as much on “Face the Nation” this Sunday: “Our problem is that we promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, and we failed. We promised to cut taxes and we have yet to do it. If we’re successful, Mitch McConnell’s fine. If we’re not, we’re all in trouble. We lose our majority […].”
Next year will be too late, and passing tax reform next year is less likely than this year — unless we have a new majority leader.
Adam Brandon (@adam_brandon) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is president and CEO of FreedomWorks.
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