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U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell spoke Wednesday afternoon at Commerce Lexington’s Public Policy Luncheon series, the first visit with the group for the longtime Kentucky legislator since ascending to the role of Senate majority leader.
In a wide-ranging talk before about 300 attendees, McConnell offered his views about the Trade-Promotion Authority deal he helped pass, the Affordable Care Act, efforts to raise the minimum wage and the coming 2016 presidential election, among other topics.
McConnell said his brief time as majority leader in the Senate had been “joyful,” making a spirited defense of his efforts while criticizing the chamber’s work under his predecessor, outgoing Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada.
“The era of dysfunction in the Senate is over,” he declared.
McConnell pointed to the trade deal, which was passed as the president pursues the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal with Asian rim nations, as evidence of his leadership as well as the possibilities for cooperation under a divided government.
“Divided government takes the politics out of it,” he said.
The leader, who made headlines in 2010 for saying the GOP’s “top political priority” was to deny President Barack Obama a second term, continued to criticize the president, saying he has sought to “Europeanize” America.
Still, he said the trade deal was a good one, noting the president’s own party was the main obstacle to getting it through Congress.
“We had an opportunity to work together on trade,” McConnell said, adding wryly: “It was almost an out-of-body experience.”
He dismissed GOP critics of the deal, insisting it was “not for any one president, it’s for the presidency.”
And while claiming Obama’s foreign policy has been “an unmitigated disaster” and predicting a Republican president, should the GOP prevail in 2016, would work to undo his signature health care law, McConnell nonetheless said divided government could accomplish great things. He pointed to successful efforts by former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton in working with partisan foes in Congress on major legislation.
Asked during a question-and-answer session following his speech to comment on efforts by some in the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council -- which mirror pushes in Louisville and elsewhere across the nation -- to raise the minimum wage, McConnell was unequivocal.
“There will be no hike in the federal minimum wage,” he said.
McConnell also spoke about the seemingly ever-expanding field of Republican presidential candidates. Saying he is supporting junior Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, McConnell also said the large field of candidates was a good sign.
“If you look at the field, think of this year’s Derby,” McConnell said. “Just a lot of good horses.”