By Lawrence Smith
Kentucky Today
Inflation, Ukraine, Roe v. Wade, and religious freedom were all topics addressed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in an exclusive interview with Kentucky Today.
Inflation
Prices for everything from gasoline to groceries continue to escalate. According to the latest report, inflation in March was up 8.5% over the past year – a 40-year high.
Following an appearance in Louisville, McConnell told Kentucky Today that inflation is being fueled by government spending.
Mitch McConnell (Screen capture of interview)
“Larry Summers, Bill Clinton’s secretary of the treasury, said last February 2021, that the American Rescue Package, which is the $2 trillion this Democratic government passed without a single Republican vote, passed last year, would overheat the economy and produce record inflation. He was right,” said McConnell. “Exactly what he predicted has happened.”
Part of the solution, in McConnell’s view, is to reduce the spending in Washington, D.C.
“We need to quit doing what we’ve been doing in Congress, which is overspending and overheating the economy,” McConnell said. “And then the Fed will have to go through several painful steps, I think, to squeeze this inflation out.”
McConnell acknowledged the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to curb inflation could also trigger a recession.
“Frequently, when you start raising interest rates and squeezing inflation out, it does create that,” he said. “We’ll have to see. I hope it doesn’t happen.”
McConnell said the Biden administration’s releasing of strategic oil reserves to reduce gasoline prices is “like a pebble in the ocean.”
He said the administration should take steps to reduce the price at the pump by encouraging domestic energy production. But, he added, he is not optimistic.
“I’m not sure we’re going to get it out of this administration. The administration has been trying to get everybody else to produce more in the world except us,” McConnell said. “It is, I think, an obsessive preoccupation with climate change, which we all know is important, but cannot be fixed overnight by clamping down on American production and consumption. It is simply not going to work.”
Ukraine
The big international crisis continues to be the war in Ukraine, and McConnell said he believes Ukraine can defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces.
“I think Ukraine can win, and the definition of victory is up to the Ukrainians. In other words, there have sort of been subtle hints that maybe you give him part of your country and he’ll be OK. I think we need to not try to dictate this outcome other than to help them win,” said McConnell. “But [Ukrainian President (Volodymyr) Zelensky has to decide what’s victory. I mean he has been an inspiration. He’s not only an inspiration to his own people but to all the rest of us. He’s standing up against pure evil, pure evil. Putin’s a thug, a killer. He needs to be stopped. They think they can do it and we need to help them.”
McConnell said the Biden administration has been slow to respond to the invasion but is ending up in “the right place.”
“I was frustrated, for example, last week the Secretary of Defense was unwilling to say in a hearing before the Armed Services Committee that the goal was victory – as if somehow by pulling our punches, at some point, it all stops,” McConnell said. “I think we need to stick with them until they declare that they’ve won.”
Millions of Ukrainians are fleeing their country because of the Russian attack, and Kentucky Baptists are sending a disaster relief team to Poland to help with the refugee crisis.
McConnell said the U.S. should be prepared to help Ukrainians who make their way here.
“The European countries are bearing most of the burden of that but, historically, we’ve taken refugees in situations like this,” he said. “We did Afghan refugees after the precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan back last August.”
Abortion
This summer, the U.S. Supreme may vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion. But if that happens, McConnell said the issue will be far from settled.
“I think it will be at the state level. I think every state in America, before Roe v. Wade, made those decisions, and it will be hashed out in every state capitol in the country.”
Free speech and religious freedom
The High Court may also soon deal with issues of free speech and religious freedom. McConnell said he is optimistic considering the conservative majority on the court.
“I think that issue is one that will be treated appropriately by the new Supreme Court that I’ve personally played a major role in creating,” he said. “I think the religious freedom issue is important to the last three Supreme Court justices who were put on the court during the previous administration, and to the other three as well. So, I’m optimistic that delicate issue will be sorted out in a way that religious people will be comfortable with.”
Midterm election
McConnell said, right now, the signs point toward Republicans regaining control of the Senate next year – once again making him the Majority Leader.
“We’ve certainly got a good environment in which to run. I think the administration is in terrible shape. It’s hard for me to imagine how they get in better shape between now and November. We need to make sure we have good, electable nominees.”
At least the American Rescue Plan helped the people who needed it most. The tax scam the republicans ushered in helped only the wealthy. Mitch, as usual, is the epitome of hypocrisy.