McConnell slams ‘Old Europe’ Democrats

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) mocked congressional Democrats Wednesday, attacking the new leadership of the 110th Congress for attempting to ram through proposals that would turn the American government into “Old Europe.”

In a speech at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., he said Democratic leaders have been pushing through bills on health care, federal spending and taxes that would substantial grow the government and lead to the economic stagnation that has dogged some European countries.

{mosads}“I can tell you that in the Senate it seems as though the other side is still looking to Old Europe for answers,” McConnell said. “In one of the great political ironies of our time, the new majority in Congress seems intent on taking America down the path of bigger government and higher taxes just as Europe is frantically trying to steer themselves away from it.”

McConnell’s broad attack on Democrats is part of an effort by Republican leaders to pull together a deeply divided caucus around federal spending and taxes – two issues that play well with the conservative base and will dominate the congressional agenda in the fall. Moreover, Republicans have a steep climb in trying to win back the Senate in 2008, and McConnell has acknowledged that his own 2008 re-election bid will be the toughest of his career.

In the speech, McConnell criticized the recently passed ethics bill that would require disclosure of lobbying activities by organizations. “Think of Sarbanes Oxley for the local pro-life chapter,” he said. Even though he’s critical of the bill, McConnell joined 33 other Republicans in voting for its passage.

McConnell also criticized a labor union-backed “card-check” bill aimed at making it easier for unions to organize, and he likened a bill that passed the Senate to expand the nation’s child health insurance program to “Hillarycare” – the nickname critics gave Hillary Rodham Clinton’s failed health care proposal of the early 1990s. McConnell voted against the children’s health care plan, but 17 of his GOP colleagues backed its passage just before the August recess.

McConnell called out veteran Democrats by name – including 20-term Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, 27-term Michigan Rep. John Dingell and 19-term New York Rep. Charles Rangel – saying the “old guard” was pushing the same policies during Lyndon Johnson’s era. “They don’t seem to have learned much in the interim.”

“The Senate Minority Leader might be focused on Old Europe, but the vast majority of Americans are more interested in what he is going to do to change course in Iraq,” responded Rodell Mollineau, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “It is our hope that come September, he and other Senate Republicans will stop protecting the president and begin working with us to redeploy our troops from an open-ended civil war.”