McConnell: Dems playing ‘game of chicken’ with military

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday slammed Senate Democrats for threatening to block a defense spending bill, saying they are playing “a dangerous game of chicken.”

“Democratic leaders [have] already packed up their dusty Winnebago and with ‘bigger IRS or bust’ scrawled on the back are now barreling toward our troops and their families in a dangerous game of chicken,” he said.

 

{mosads}Senate Democrats have pledged to block a series of spending bills in an attempt to get Republicans to make a deal to lift budget caps under the sequester. However, they have been tightlipped about whether or not they would block a defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), currently before the Senate. 

McConnell asserted Democrats’ strategy is to “deny our troops the benefits that they’ve earned and even shut down the government if they can’t extract more taxpayer dollars for bureaucracies.”

The Senate is expected to take up the defense spending bill after it finishes work on the NDAA, providing the first test to Democrats’ plan. 

McConnell on Monday asked Democrats to “please think about what you’re doing.”

“I’m asking these leaders to please stop. Please stop. This isn’t some game,” he said.