McConnell predicts debt-limit showdown

March 13, 2013

The Hill

Alexander Bolton

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that Republicans will use the expiration of the debt limit this summer as leverage to get President Obama to consider entitlement reforms.

This could set up a standoff over the nation’s borrowing authority similar to the one that resulted in the nation losing its credit rating in 2011.

“Until we make our entitlement programs fit the demographics of our country, you can’t save America, you can’t save the healthcare system,” McConnell said. “There is no revenue solution, I would say to you.”

“We all anticipate that the president’s request of us to raise the debt ceiling, which we’ll probably do sometime this will generate another, hopefully, another discussion about solving the real problem,” he said.

McConnell said the only way to “straighten America out” is to “fix the entitlement issue."

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