Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill on March 24, 2015.(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP)
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has vowed no government shutdowns or debt defaults will happen on his watch — but that doesn't mean there won't be bruising battles along the way.
"I think we're going to have big arguments over the funding bills, frankly," McConnell said in a USA TODAY interview Wednesday marking the first 100 days of the new GOP majority in Congress.
McConnell said he expects Republicans will use the 12 annual spending bills to battle Democrats and rein in an administration that he says has been on "a rampage."
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"That's one area where I think we really have a really deep-seated difference of opinion. Just about how much government is appropriate, and our best way to impact that is the funding process," he said. "I do think a majority in the House and Senate will push back against the agencies, and that will probably produce some big differences of opinion, maybe some vetoes, we'll see."
If it sounds like brinksmanship talk, McConnell assures that it's not.
While Republicans, particularly in the House, helped push the Department of Homeland Security to the brink of a shutdown earlier this year in protest of President Obama's executive orders on immigration, McConnell noted that he led the effort to end the impasse by bringing a bill Democrats supported to the floor.
"You're looking at the person who made sure it didn't happen," he said. "We're not doing that kind of stuff anymore."
McConnell was equally assertive that a vote to raise the nation's debt limit — expected in late summer —- will not rattle the markets or threaten default.
"We'll figure a way to do that," he said. "Ideally it would carry something with it, but obviously we're not doing to default on the nation's obligations."
McConnell added that he is siding against the GOP's traditional allies in the business community in the brewing Republican dispute over legislation required to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, a relatively obscure government agency that provides loan guarantees to foreign buyers of American goods.
Prominent conservatives, including House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have called for eliminating the agency. It has become a philosophical flashpoint for conservative groups who see it as a force for crony capitalism.
"I'm not a supporter of it," McConnell said, "It's become much more controversial in recent years."
However, he said he will not block a vote to reauthorize it, and that it is likely to have enough support in the Senate without him. "I think it probably enjoys a majority in the Senate, and I don't think we should deny it the opportunity to be voted on."
Despite securing his career goal of becoming Senate majority leader, McConnell said he is focused on delivering wins for the rank-and-file.
"My job right now is to help others succeed. I think a leader ought to be a facilitator. What I want for my members is to realize their goals and ambitions and to make a difference for their constituents."
His colleagues do not always make it easy. "You have a lot of class president types in this line of work. All of whom have pretty healthy egos and sharp elbows and on any given day probably think they could have my job."
At least three of those class president types — Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Marco Rubio of Florida — are trying to become the actual president.
McConnell has thrown his support behind fellow Kentuckian Paul, although many in the party are wary of nominating a first-term senator — lack of experience was a frequent GOP attack lobbed at then-candidate Barack Obama, who went on to win the presidency twice after serving just four years in the Senate.
"Well it looks like several first-term senators said, 'Well maybe that's a good precedent,'" McConnell quipped.
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