Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is bringing nearly $1 billion in federal spending and tax cuts to Kentucky, The Hill is reporting.
He touted the package as he gets set for a potentially tough re-election campaign, the news outlet reported. McConnell is seeking his seventh Senate term next year.
McConnell was able to secure $914.2 million in direct spending for his constituents in the two year-end omnibus spending bills.
And he jabbed his Democratic opponent, Amy McGrath, while highlighting his spending and tax-relief accomplishments.
“I saw a commercial from my likely opponent indicating that I was all that was wrong with Washington,” he said. “So I have a question for her here as we go into the new year: In what way would Kentucky have been better off without any of these items that I put in the year-end spending bill?”
The Hill noted the windfall likely will boost his political standing at home.
He's never had a great level of personal popularity so it's been important for him to deliver for the state, and he does a good job of doing that," said Al Cross, a journalism professor at the University of Kentucky and a longtime commentator on state politics.
The spending package includes $410 million for a new veterans affairs medical center in Louisville and a tax break for spirits distillers worth an estimated $426 million in 2020 alone, The Hill said.
A survey, conducted by Public Polling Policy in February, found that only 33% of registered voters in Kentucky approve of the job McConnell is doing.
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Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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