McConnell: Senate 'didn't do squat for years'

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says his biggest challenge will be righting the course of Congress, adding — in a swipe at outgoing Majority Leader Harry Reid — that his own chamber “basically didn’t do squat for years.”

In an interview with The New York Times published Monday, McConnell also took a shot at his party’s tea party wing, which has resisted most forms of new spending.


“One of my challenges is to try to convince some of my members that passing an appropriations bill is a good thing, not a bad thing,” McConnell said.

“The Senate basically didn’t do squat for years. I don’t think most members of the Senate wanted it run that way,” McConnell said.

McConnell has promised to bring some changes to the chamber — including extending the workweek to Friday — but other battles he won’t let go of just yet. The paper said McConnell indicated his party will attempt to repeal Obamacare one more time before moving on to individual aspects of the law, as POLITICO has previously reported.