Mitch McConnell Criticizes President Obama's Handling Of Economy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized President Obama for what he called 'tepid' economic growth during the President's tenure in the White House.
McConnell, during an interview with Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said the last eight years do not come close to what traditional growth rates look like.
"People have a right to be upset. Let me just tell you, the Obama years have been very bad for average Americans. We have fewer people in the middle class than when the President came into office. Just measuring it from the day he came to office, people are about $1300 a year worse off than when he came to office. We've had a tepid growth rate. The growth rate in America is usually about four percent on average annually. The President hasn't had a single quarter of three percent growth. What that means is fewer jobs and opportunity for the next generation."
He also responded to criticism from cable news host Bill O'Reilly regarding the Senate's inability to pass Kate's Law, a bill that would establish mandatory minimum sentences on undocumented immigrants who re-enter the country illegally multiple times that was named after Kate Steinle, a woman who was shot and killed by an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco last year.
"Bill is having a hard time understanding how the Senate works. We voted on a bill that included that and if there were a way to pass it, I'm in favor of it...We can't pass it all by itself. That's the problem. I wish we had 60 votes in the Senate to do whatever we wanted to do. We explained that to O'Reilly repeatedly, but he doesn't seem to want to listen. He's a great entertainer and he has a great audience, but on this one, he just doesn't understand how the Senate works and when we explain it to him, he's not interested in accepting the facts."
McConnell is also the author of a new book, The Long Game, an autobiography detailing his time in the Senate.