There’s so much emphasis on the most extreme bills that either party might pass with a simple majority. People forget that the Senate’s 60-vote threshold is the only reason that any routine, must-pass legislation is bipartisan except during divided government, big funding deals. Appropriations bills. Farm bills. Highway bills. The NDAA. The Senate’s 60-vote threshold backstops all of it. It’s not just about controversial items; it’s about everything we do.

Mitch McConnell

The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.

Mitch McConnell

politics important president

All Citizens United did was to level the playing field for corporate speech. We now have, I think, the most free and open system we've had in modern times.

Mitch McConnell

citizens-united levels thinking

You'll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think.

Mitch McConnell

regret memorable thinking

Are we still a country that takes risks, that innovates, that believes anything is possible? Or are we a country that is resigned to whatever liberty the government decides to dish out?

Mitch McConnell

government believe country

For everybody who thinks it's warming, I can find somebody who thinks it isn't.

Mitch McConnell

climate-change republican thinking

The minimum wage is mostly an entry-level wage for young people.

Mitch McConnell

minimum-wage levels people

The bill that job creators and out-of-work Americans need us to pass is the one that ensures taxes won't go up - one that says Americans and small-business owners won't get hit with more bad news at the end of the year.

Mitch McConnell

jobs years needs

We all know that Social Security is one of this country's greatest success stories in the 20th century.

Mitch McConnell

social stories country

The money that goes into Social Security is not the government's money. it's your money. You paid for it.

Mitch McConnell

paid government social

The worst day of my political life was when President George W. Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law.

Mitch McConnell

political president law

It's a shame that we have to use whatever leverage we have in Congress to get the president to deal with the biggest problem confronting our future. And that's our excessive spending.

Mitch McConnell

problem president use

More young people believe they'll see a U.F.O. than that they'll see their own Social Security benefits.

Mitch McConnell

benefits believe people

The biggest problem confronting the country is our excessive spending. If we're not going to deal with it now, when are we going to deal with it? And we've watched the government explode over the last four years. We've dealt with the revenue issue.

Mitch McConnell

government country years

Republicans will not be reduced to being the tax collectors for the Obama economy.

Mitch McConnell

taxes economy republican

The worst experience any majority can have is that you convene and you look around and nothing's ready to go.

Mitch McConnell

majority worst looks

Whether it's before the election or after the election, the principle is the American people are choosing their next president and their next president should pick this Supreme Court nominee.

Mitch McConnell

next president people

America is about to turn the page on Barack Obama's four-year experiment in big government.

Mitch McConnell

government america years

Obama hasn't been working to earn reelection, he's been working to earn a spot on the PGA tour!

Mitch McConnell

reelection republican politics

We have a debt the size of our economy, which makes us look a lot like Greece.

Mitch McConnell

size debt looks

For four years, Americans have waited for the faintest light to flicker at the end of the tunnel. And this President has let them down again and again and again. It is time to move on. It is time for a leader who will lead. That leader is Mitt Romney.

Mitch McConnell

leader