WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that fiscal cliff negotiations are as gridlocked in private as they are in public.
“Frankly, I had hoped we would be accomplishing more in the real talks that are going on privately,” McConnell said, when asked if he supported the proposal set forward Monday by Speaker of the House John Boehner, which the White House has since rejected.
“But I can tell you, being aware of those, there’s nothing going on privately that’s not going on publicly. … We’ve wasted an enormous amount of time here, sparring back and forth in public, and it strikes me as a good time to get serious about the proposals,” McConnell said. “So I have no particular observation, other than that I commend the House Republican leadership for trying to move the process along, and get it to a point where hopefully we can have a real discussion.”
McConnell has repeatedly lambasted the initial fiscal-cliff proposal set forward by the White House as completely untenable, even as a starting point for negotiations.