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BOB SCHIEFFER: And good morning again. And welcome to FACE THE NATION. The Republican leader Mitch McConnell joins us this morning from Louisville, Kentucky. Well, senator, you've seen by now the pictures of the speaker of the House and the President playing golf yesterday. Do you think anything will come out of that? Is-- is that, do you think it will help break this gridlock we've got here in Washington?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R-Kentucky/Republican Leader): Well, it-- it couldn't do any harm. I assume Boehner let the President win.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, let's talk. Let's get down to business here. You know, Republicans say over and over the way to create jobs is by cutting taxes, bringing the deficit down. But do you believe that there's anything else that the government can do to get people back to work, because every survey shows that while deficit reduction is on people's mind, what is really
bothering them is unemployment. Is there anything else that can be done besides cutting taxes and-- and-- and reducing spending?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, we need to quit doing what we've been doing. It's obvious that the stimulus, borrowing all that money and spending it basically on the government employees, didn't do any good. If you talk to business people and Bill Daley, the present Chief Of Staff did recently, you find out their biggest complaint is overregulation. You know, the federal government with that stimulus money hired a quarter of a million new employees. These people are busily at work trying to regulate every aspect of American life in-- in health care, financial services, through the Environmental Protection Agency, really sort of bureaucrats on steroids that are freezing up-- the private-- private sector and making it very difficult, Bob, for them to grow and expand. You know, you're seen the reports that they've two trillion in cash.
The reason they're not investing that in hiring more people is the government has made it very expensive to expand employment.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So do you-- do Republicans have any plans to do anything on the unemployment front or are you just going to let things take their course?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: No, I-- I think-- what-- what we're doing is encouraging the President to-- to quit doing what he's doing. Quit overspending. And we're hoping with the debt ceiling discussions we can begin to address deficit and debt. And second, they need to quit over-regulating the American economy. This is something they can do on their own. They don't have to come to us for permission to rein in these regulators who are really at work across the American economy making it very, very difficult for businesses to function.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. You know, at an Economic Town Hall that aired on CBS EARLY SHOW earlier this week, your colleague Republican Senator Tom Coburn said that the reason that Democrats and Republicans can't get together is because people in both parties are simply more interested in their own political survival than they are in doing what needs to be done. He
said you just don't have the courage to step up to the plate and do it. Do you-- do you believe he's right about that?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, I sure hope not. I mean we're going to have an opportunity here very soon in connection with raising the debt ceiling to see whether both sides can come together and address this enormous problem. You know, when-- when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff, our top military guy when asked what is our biggest national security
problem says the debt. When Erskine Bowles, the co-chairman of the President's Deficit Reduction Commission and former Bill Clinton Chief Of Staff says this is the most predictable crisis in history. When you have got a fourteen-trillion-dollar debt as big as our economy, plus, over fifty trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities on popular programs like Medicare, Medicaid and
Social Security, what else do we need to know? This is the time to come together and hopefully in connection with the debt ceiling, we can-- we can do that.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, let's talk about that just a little bit because that's the next big deal you've got to do here is figuring out whether or not to raise this debt limit. Do you think that the two sides are going to come together and raise that debt limit? Because talking about political courage, most people don't really want to do it. The experts say it has to be done. People say they're not sure we ought to because the spending is out of control. Will you be willing to do that?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, I think what they're really to see what we'll do is to do something about the debt. What they're wondering is not whether we're going to raise the debt ceiling but whether we're going to do something about our annual deficit and the debt. I mean that's the real test. That's what Standard & Poor's and Moody's, the rating agencies are looking
for. And so, you know, we-- we really need to do this. Now if we can't do something really significant about the debt ceiling, that is really large comprehensive plan that includes entitlement reform, you cannot ignore entitlement reform. Bill Clinton said that. The President and the vice president, everybody knows you have to tackle entitlement reform. If we can't do that, then we'll probably end up with a very short-term proposal over, you know, a few months.
And we'll be back having the same discussion again in the fall.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, let me just ask you this. Is part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling, would you be willing and open to eliminating some tax breaks if Democrats will go along with some spending cuts?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, we're really interested in corporate tax reform. For that matter, tax reform across the board. It's very hard, Bob, to-- to deal with a big subject like tax reform within a month. We need to do it. But it's hard to squeeze that into this time limit we have in connection with the deficit. So we need to concentrate -- excuse me-- we need to concentrate
on cutting spending
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, if that was what it took to do the deal, would you be willing to figure out a way to do it?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, we're discussing everything in-- in the context of raising the debt ceiling, but the biggest problem is the spending problem.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. I know something that you've been really up in arms about lately is the two terrorists who are arrested down in Kentucky. The Justice Department says it's going to put them on trial in a civilian court down there. You are saying no way. They need to be tried in--at Guantanamo. Isn't that setting kind of an odd precedent here because these people are not people arrested overseas, they were people who were arrested in your state.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, you know, they're enemy combatants. They-- they-- the-- the things that they're accused of doing or-- or in Iraq, their fingerprints were found on IEDs in Iraq. They got into this country as a mistake. These are enemy combatants. So let's get the-- the terminology right. These are not American citizens. They're enemy combatants. The attorney general said the other night our biggest weapon in the war on terror was the U.S. civilian court system. I don't know what planet he's living on. If Osama bin Laden were alive today, I think he'd say our biggest weapon was U.S. Navy SEALs. Look, foreigners are not entitled to be tried in the U.S. court system, particularly, if they are enemy combatants. And that's what these are--enemy combatants. They should-- the attorney general has the choice.
He just made the wrong choice. They ought to be tried in military commissions. They-- they--This-- this is a no-brainer. These foreigners who are exploding IEDs in Iraq shouldn't be tried in a U.S. court system and Bowling Green, or anywhere else.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, Senator, I'm sorry. We're running out of time here but I want to thank you for sharing this part of Father's Day with us. Thanks for being with us.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Thank you, Bob.
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