Donald Trump needs to quit making "outrageous statements" and start talking about the economy and his plans for recovery from the declining years under President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.
"America ought to be growing at about three-and-a-half and 4 percent annually," McConnell told the
Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo Tuesday. "The president hasn't had a single quarter of 3 percent growth. The growth was .5. Look at the horrible job report last week. That is the biggest issue confronting the country, getting us going again."
The decline has occurred because the Obama administration has been "overregulating every aspect of our society" over the past seven years, said McConnell.
"You name a sector of the economy and they are overregulating it and that's the reason there's been a foot on the brakes instead of the accelerator," he continued.
Bartiromo said it seems to her that Democrats, "even if they hate each other" can get together, while "Republicans just cannot seem to do that," and McConnell pointed out that efforts are being made to unify the GOP behind Trump.
But Trump needs to reach out and bring in people like his former rivals for the GOP nomination, said McConnell, "and talking about the issues the American care about and what they care about is exactly what you asked me about, Maria, this slow growth, lack of opportunity economy that has been left behind after eight years of Barack Obama. That's the fundamental issue before the American people and the nominee for president needs to start talking about it."
Further, McConnell denied claims that Washington's "establishment" is at fault for much of what has happened to the nation, saying Obama has vetoed several reform measures, including bills to repeal Obamacare.
"To turn the country around you need a president who is willing to sign the initiatives that the Republican Congress can put on his desk," said McConnell, as Obama won't veto legislation he favors.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Texas GOP Rep. Jim Hensarling unveiled a plan to replace the
Dodd-Frank financial reform law, outlining a plan that would either repeal or loosen new Dodd-Frank regulations and that includes a provision to reduce the power of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
But McConnell said he has doubts the bill will become law as long as Obama is president. "Our system was suffering from sclerosis as a result of Dodd-Frank," said McConnell. "I'm sure it's the kind of thing that I would approve of and we would like to put on the desk of a president who would sign it."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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