McConnell reiterates GOP agenda for Obama

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky doubled-down on his assessment that the GOP’s top priority is making Barack Obama a one-term president.

“Over the past week, some have said it was indelicate of me to suggest that our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term in office,” McConnell said during a speech Thursday at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“But the fact is, if our primary legislative goals are to repeal and replace the health spending bill, to end the bailouts, cut spending and shrink the size and scope of government,” he said, “the only way to do all these things is to put someone in the White House who won’t veto any of these things.”

Even though the Senate remains in Democratic control, Republicans gained six seats in the upper chamber, shrinking the Democrats’ majority.

McConnell has made it clear, as have other Republican leaders, that the lesson from Tuesday’s electoral romp is that working together means Democrats and the White House need to move to the right.

The Kentucky senator promised repeated votes on repealing Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, the healthcare law. But shy of sending the president a bill he would surely veto, McConnell said Senate Republicans will work to deny the administration funds needed to implement the law.

“We can hope the president will start listening to the electorate after Tuesday’s election,” McConnell said. “But we can’t plan on it.”

lmascaro@tribune.com