Free Republic

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has ruled out any action on immigration reform in the current Congress. Speaking to reporters at a press conference, McConnell made it clear that reform advocates will have to wait. And he point the finger of blame at President Obama. “Not this Congress. I think when the president took the action he did, after the 2014 election, he pretty much made it impossible for us to go forward with immigration reform this Congress,” said the Kentucky senator, this in reference to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration – actions which have since been tied up...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is pressing his Republican colleagues to block fast-track trade legislation ahead of an expected procedural vote on Tuesday. "As conservatives, we should look before we leap," Sessions said in a letter to his fellow Senate Republicans on Monday. "We have a second chance to get answers, but we will only get them if cloture is not invoked."

The United Kentucky Tea Party on Monday said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell should drop out of the Republican primary in their state so conservatives can rally around Matt Bevin, the GOP candidate who is challenging Mr. McConnell from the political right. The tea party group cited Mr. McConnell’s dramatic vote last week to extend the nation’s debt limit and polling that suggests he could lose to the eventual Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, in the general election. “Senator McConnell’s recent vote with [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid to hand President Obama a blank check for the next year has...

The $2 billion Kentucky Kickback is not the only treat in McConnell’s bag of Halloween tricks. The final deal to sell out the American people with Obamacare and perennial debt includes a hallmark of the 2011 McConnell debt ceiling plan. Section 1002 of the bill provides for McConnell’s infamous resolution of disapproval. Basically, within three weeks of the President’s official request for a debt limit increase (until Feb 7, 2014 in this case), Congress can force a vote to disapprove of the request. There’s one problem, though. That resolution must pass with 2/3ds majorities in both houses. So why slip...

Mitch McConnell delivered a speech today at the American Enterprise Institute to officially signal that the IRS scandal has entered its post-fact phase. When the IRS first revealed that its Cincinnati office had attempted to enforce its nonprofit laws using a search function that disproportionately impacted conservatives, Republicans were certain it must have come from the White House. They were going to follow the facts. But all of the facts point in the same direction, which is that the Obama administration had nothing to do with it at all. That was the conclusion of the agency’s inspector-general report, as well...

As the budget talks heat up and the time to reach any deal necessitates compromise, many on the right are becoming disillusioned with the evolution of the new budget. Among these is Sarah Palin, who told Sean Hannity tonight that she thought Sen. Mitch McConnell’s plan “makes no sense” and that now, more than evern, “we have to reload. We will not capitulate.” Palin argued that much of the debt problem was due to the direction that President Obama had taken the country, away from “a strong foundation of reward for work ethic and development of natural resources.” Now that...