McConnell uses Corbin stop to bash Obama record; says he would set different agenda

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell spoke to the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in Corbin Tuesday. He then attended a similar event at Baptist Health Corbin later in the day to discuss health care reform.

In his visit to Corbin Tuesday, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) launched a scathing assault on the policies of President Barack Obama, saying that if re-elected next year he plans to continue to oppose ideas he said are damaging to Kentucky and the rest of the nation.

McConnell spoke during the monthly membership luncheon of the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, held at the Corbin Center for Technology and Community Activities. Hundreds were on hand to see McConnell speak. His speech was brief, clocking in at just over 14 minutes, but packed with criticism of the Obama administration.

It was a speech that will no doubt become a common refrain during McConnell’s re-election bid. He is the longest serving senator in Kentucky, having first assumed office in 1985. He is set to face Louisville businessman Matt Bevin in next May’s Primary Election. Democrat Secretary of State Alison Lundergun-Grimes will be his likely challenger in the General Election.

"We’ve had a tutorial here the last four and a half years," McConnell told the crowd. "I think we can safely say this; if borrowing and spending and overregulating and raising taxes would produce a vibrant economy, America would be in the middle of a boom."

McConnell accused Obama of being intransigent since the mid-term elections of 2010 when Democrats lost their 60-vote supermajority in the U.S. Senate; more willing to simply unjustly making unilateral decisions that are unprecedented.

He said when Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan faced divided government, they learned to compromise and get things done.

"Those two presidents decided to deal with the government they had rather than the government they wish they had," McConnell said. "They moved to the center and significant things were done on a bipartisan basis."

Instead, McConnell said Obama has simply "assumed powers that surprised us all."

On a topic that he would also take up in more detail later Tuesday during a visit at Baptist Health Corbin, McConnell said he would remain committed to thwarting the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, often called "Obamacare." He said the health care reform law is "deeply, deeply unpopular and wreaking havoc on our economy."

Recently, Obama decided to put aside the "employer mandate" portion of the law until next year. McConnell said that move shows that "cracks are developing."

"Things that cannot work will not work," he said. "It will implode. It’s just a matter of time and which part will crumble first."

McConnell said the federal government right now is often antagonistic toward business and industry. He pointed to the Firestone plant in Williamsburg as an example of a company that has found a way to survive and thrive in a tough economic environment.

"Those guys are competing with other companies who are doing something similar to what they do outside the United States. They have faced up to competing in a global economy, learned how to do what they do in a cost competitive way, and that’s a good example right here in Whitley County of how you deal with global competition."

McConnell took questions from the mostly reserved crowd following the speech, but all of them simply tread ground he already covered regarding coal and health care.

After wrapping up his speech, he was presented with a special award by Chamber Executive Director Bruce Carpenter.