McConnell hits on familiar issues, makes case for another term during Williamsburg visit

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell spoke Tuesday at the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Williamsburg.

The economy, the war on coal, Obamacare and the proposed minimum wage hike were among the topics that U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell addressed during his address to the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce during its monthly membership luncheon.

McConnell was the keynote speaker at the event, which was held at the Williamsburg Tourism and Convention Center Monday afternoon.

McConnell started out his address discussing where he thinks the country stands and then went on to address the upcoming election three weeks from now where he is facing off against Kentucky Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes in a bid to win a sixth term in office.

McConnell summed up the last six years as a time of big borrowing, big spending, high taxes and over regulation.

McConnell said he thinks President Obama is trying to Europeanize America with his policies. In most Western European countries you see big debt, lots of taxes, lots of spending and over regulation, which produces slow growth, he explained.

McConnell concedes that we are in an economic "recovery of sorts."

While the unemployment rate nationally has declined, McConnell said it is calculated by figuring out the number of people actively seeking employment or the labor participation rate.

"The number of people looking for work in our country today is what it was during the Carter Administration," McConnell noted. "Obviously our population has grown significantly in the last 35 years so people have literally given up and dropped out. The real unemployment rate in our country now is up in double digits."

He said the most significant example of government overreach is the war on coal, which the Obama administration is fighting through EPA regulations because it can’t get new laws passed through Congress.

He said the regulations are targeting two things. The first is killing future coal-fired power plants. The second targets current coal-fired power plants.

7,000 coal mining jobs have been lost in Kentucky over the last four or five years under the Obama administration.

"For every coal mining job, we lose three more jobs. This is a grim picture," he said.

McConnell said the war on coal is about trying to reduce global carbon emissions.

"There is a wide spread belief that the globe is getting warmer. I would point out to you that there was a widespread belief in the 70’s that the globe was getting colder," McConnell said.

He said the problem is that other modern countries in the industrialized world aren’t following suit with efforts to cut carbon emissions.

Germany, which used to be the greenest country in Europe, is now importing coal. The Chinese are building coal plants. Just two months ago, Australia repealed its carbon tax.

"This was their version of what the president is trying to do through the EPA," McConnell said. "Even if you thought this is an important cause, nobody else is going to do it.

"So for us, it is all pain. Even if you believe in the cause, it is no gain. Our country doing this all by ourselves is about as effective as dropping a pebble in the ocean. It has no effect."

If he is re-elected and made majority leader in the Senate, then McConnell said he will be setting the agenda for America and pushing back against the war on coal.

This statement drew a round of applause from the crowd.

McConnell noted that if he becomes Senate Majority Leader, he would be only the second other majority party leader ever from Kentucky. Alvin Barkley led the Democratic party in the senate in the 1930s and 1940s.

"There is little or no chance that my opponent would ever be in that position in the future. This is a unique opportunity," he said.

McConnell said that his opponent would be a new face, but a face for what he asked?

"She is a new face for the status quo," McConnell argued. "She is a new face to vote for the president’s agenda. She is a new face for the same old thing we have had for the last six years.

"If you want to change the country, the only thing that is available in 2014 is to change the United States Senate.

"You make me the majority leader in the senate and we are going to take America in a different direction," McConnell said getting a standing ovation.

Obamacare fixes

During the luncheon McConnell fielded two questions from the audience.

The first is what can be done to fix Obamacare.

McConnell said that it should be repealed but he conceded this isn’t likely to happen.

He called the law a "very big mistake."

McConnell said that he has held 70 hospital town hall meetings over the last two years because Obamacare takes $700 billion away from hospitals, nursing homes, home health care and hospice over the next 10 years.

He said the Congressional Budget Office, which is run by a former Clinton staffer, estimates that the law will probably cost 2.5 million jobs nationally.

That same former Clinton staffer in the Congressional Budget Office, estimates that there will still be 30 million people without health insurance even after Obamacare is fully implemented. There were 40 million people without health insurance when the law was implemented, McConnell noted.

"What do you think the cost benefit ratio is to do it?" McConnell asked?

McConnell said that instead he would do three things to increase the number of people covered by insurance and improve healthcare.

The first thing would be to tear down walls and let insurance companies sell health insurance across state lines, which would increase competition and drive costs down.

The second thing would be national medical malpractice reform and set a national medical malpractice standard so that hospitals and doctors don’t have to run unneeded tests to cover themselves in the event of a medical malpractice lawsuit.

The third thing is to allow small businesses to band together into larger purchasing groups in order to use their combined purchasing power to get better rates and coverage.

Minimum wage hike

The second question McConnell fielded dealt with raising the minimum wage, which is widely backed by many Democrats and his opponent.

McConnell said that the problem with raising the minimum wage to the level being discussed is that it would eliminate between 500,000 and 1 million jobs nationally, according to estimates, including the loss of 17,000 jobs in Kentucky.

Businesses with narrow profit margins would be forced to either layoff people or raise prices.

"Why would we want fewer jobs for young people?" McConnell said. "I think it is a mistake for the country. It’s a really bad idea. I don’t think we should be doing it right now."

McConnell said that he has supported past minimum wage hike efforts when the country had a robust economy and it was coupled with tax breaks to prevent job loses.

At the close of the luncheon, Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. announced that McConnell’s bus tour would be making a campaign stop in North Corbin Monday at Salem Tool, a local manufacturer of coal equipment.

Southeast Kentucky Rehabilitation Industries (SEKRI) was the sponsor of Tuesday’s membership luncheon.