McConnell basically admits that Democrats' debt ceiling vote was "to protect the country"

[ProSense]

McConnell Defends Debt Limit Vote: 'My Job Is To Protect The Country'

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday defended his vote to advance the clean debt limit hike on Wednesday.

"My job is to protect the country when I can," McConnell said at a campaign appearance in Louisville, Ky., according to WHAS 11, "and to step up and lead on those occasions when it's required. That's what I did."

McConnell and other members of Republican leadership in the Senate voted to break Sen. Ted Cruz's filibuster of the debt ceiling bill so that it could be voted on by the chamber. McConnell was quickly criticized by his Tea Party challenger in the Senate race, Matt Bevin.

McConnell said that a clean debt limit bill was not ideal.

"My preference is for a debt ceiling to carry additional legislation that does something about the debt," he said at the campaign event. "I've obviously demonstrated that. I negotiated the Budget Control Act with Vice President Biden in August of 2011. It led to a deficit reduction package that actually reduced government spending for two years in a row, for the first time since right after the Korean War."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mcconnell-defends-debt-limit-vote

McConnell voted against it in the end.

Senate Approves Debt Limit Increase With Drama-Filled Vote

By Arlette Saenz

In a high drama vote Wednesday, the Senate approved a bill to extend the government’s borrowing authority until March 2015.

The Senate voted along party lines – 55-43 – to increase the debt limit. That result followed another vote to clear a procedural hurdle that resulted in some dramatic arm twisting between Republican senators after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, required a 60-vote threshold in order to advance the bill.

What was supposed to be a 15-minute procedural vote lasted an hour, with Republican senators deliberating over who would vote to advance the bill. A large group of Republican senators, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was seen huddling on the Senate floor before deciding their votes.

In a move that could be used against them by their primary opponents in the 2014 campaign, McConnell and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, voted in favor of advancing the bill, opening the floodgates for other Republican senators who were wary of voting aye to join them.

- more -

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/02/senate-approves-debt-limit-increase-with-drama-filled-vote/

Roll call: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=2&vote=00034

[ProSense]

1. Kick to

number Mitch's days. LOL!