On Fox News Sunday Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) maintained that the Republicans’ number one goal remains the defeat of President Obama in 2012. In an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News, McConnell was asked about a charge made by Democrats that the Republicans are purposefully sabotaging the economy for political gain in 2012. McConnell at first seemed to admit the charge, saying “Well that’s true” before going on to claim that Republicans want to fix the economy first. A video of McConnell’s comments can be seen in the video to the left.
Democrats have long accused Republicans of seeking political gains over the good of the country. As evidence they point to McConnell’s quote from October 2010 in which he said,
“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
McConnell did not back down from those remarks when given an opportunity to do so this Sunday, but did attempt to differentiate between the “political” goal of Republicans and other, broader goals. Republicans argue that they can still work to defeat President Obama while trying to also improve the country, and that, in fact, the two goals may be entirely consistent.
However, Democrats claim that the Republicans actions do not match up with their words. Last week Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) questioned why Republicans were rejecting a new payroll tax cut as part of the debt deal by saying,
“Would Republicans really oppose a tax cut for business that created jobs? This is sort of beyond the pale. So if they'd oppose even something so suited to their tastes ideologically, it shows that they're just opposing anything that would help create jobs. It almost makes you wonder if they aren’t trying to slow down the economic recovery for political gain.”
Democrats claim that Republicans never saw a tax cut they did not like until it was a tax cut that could help the economy and President Obama’s electoral chances. Republicans have countered by saying they will not accept any more tax cuts until it is part of a broader reform package.
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