McConnell Said No to Money for Miners, Yes to Russian-Backed Plant
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last month blocked a measure that would have used Treasury Department funds marked for Appalachian development to help pay for coal miners health care and pensions in his home state of Kentucky.
But just a few months earlier, McConnell successfully steered near-identical Treasury funds for Appalachia to bankroll a Kentucky aluminum plant connected to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have raised concerns for months about McConnells connection to the aluminum plant. Its one of several reasons why McConnells political opponents have tried to stick him with the nickname Moscow Mitch. But whats gone largely unnoticed as the sobriquet has become a social media trending topic is how McConnell worked to keep money out of coal miners handseven as he maneuvered to steer federal funds to the Russian-linked plant.
The scrutiny started in January, when McConnell voted to lift sanctions on Rusal, a Russian aluminum company formerly headed by Putin ally Oleg Deripaska, despite several of his Republican colleagues defecting and voting no. Rusals de-listing caused an uproar among Democrats on Capitol Hill who viewed the deal the Treasury Department put together with Rusal as too lenient.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mitch-mcconnell-blocked-millions-for-coal-miners-steered-funds-to-russian-backed-plant
Me.
(35,454 posts)lapfog_1
(29,199 posts)meaning the victims of Jeffery Epstein... because of what they might have to say about the orange blob in the White House.