Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said President Barack Obama and legislators from both political parties need to work together to reduce U.S. debt.
“We have two opportunities, both the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling, to try to accomplish something on a bipartisan basis on both our short-term debt and our long-term unfunded liability,” McConnell said in a television interview today on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The president ought to step up to the plate with us and tackle it together.”
The U.S. Congress approved a continuing resolution Dec. 21 that would keep the government funded through March 4. Democrats wanted funding to last through the government’s fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
In his Jan. 25 State of the Union address, President Obama proposed a five-year freeze on domestic spending for a savings of about $400 billion over a decade. Republicans, and some Democrats, say the freeze doesn’t go far enough, and they’re demanding big spending cuts as part of any deal to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, which may be reached as early as March.
McConnell also said Social Security is “in trouble” and Medicare is on an “unsustainable path.”
“The American people are asking us to tackle these problems,” he said. “The president needs to be more bold. We are prepared to be.”
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