McConnell: "They knew I had a weak hand, given the time we had squandered on this quixotic venture"

-- McConnell, in an interview with National Review, 10/17/13


COSTA: When did you know this standoff was finally ending?

MCCONNELL: I can tell you when I knew that we’d end up here — July. We had extensive discussions in July about how the defund strategy couldn’t possibly succeed. And it’s really a matter of simple math: 54 is more than 46. And, of course, when you add in the president, you knew it had no chance of success. So I knew we’d end up in the place where we ended up. What I could not have predicted is that we’d end up in that place and have so few cards to play. To use a football analogy, by the time it was clear the House couldn’t pass anything, I was on the two-yard line, trying to see how I could punt to get us into a better field position to live to fight another day without raising taxes or busting the [Budget Control Act] caps. Honestly, that’s why it was a deal worth making. But it didn’t have anything else attached to it because the House couldn’t send anything that would give me any ability to negotiate. As you recall, that’s the same problem we had last December 31 during the fiscal cliff. The speaker had an excellent “Plan B” with a $1 million threshold on taxes, but they couldn’t pass it. If they had been able to send that over, we’d have ended up a lot higher than $400,000, $450,000 for a couple.

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MCCONNELL: This thing that passed the Senate, which, honestly, only maintained the status quo for a few more months, was better than what the House tried to pass and couldn’t pass, because it has a longer CR, which is what we wanted. That’s how challenging it is when you can’t get something more in line with what you’d like to achieve over here. So, my job is to acquaint our members, the best I can, with the reality of our situation, and try to get them to enable me to get us all out of the ditch — and my members weren’t happy being in a 16-day government shutdown and being a day away from rattling the markets by getting close to default. They knew I had a weak hand, given the time we had squandered on this quixotic venture that had no chance of success, but they asked me to find a way out and I did. Most of them voted for it, too, which I appreciated.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/361533/mcconnells-exit-interview-robert-costa