McConnell: Now is not the Time

Pointing to high unemployment in the US, violence along the border and the drug wars in Mexico, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said now is not the time for Washington to take up immigration reform as Senate Democrats seem ready to do. "It just strikes me that our time would be better spent at the federal level on other issues," McConnell said. McConnell declined to comment on the new immigration measure signed into law in Arizona, saying he had not "looked at it in detail yet." Turning to an issue that the Senate is dealing with right now, financial regulatory reform, McConnell said although he thinks there is a good chance Democrats and Republicans can come to an agreement,"we don't have a bipartisan compromise yet," adding that the"the Democrats over the weekend are arguing themselves over the derivatives portion of it." Asked about whether Republicans can stop this bill from moving forward whenthe cloture vote is held on the legislation, McConnell said it is his expectation "we will not go forward with this partisan bill tomorrow." McConnell said about the President's debt commission, which is scheduled to hold its first meeting this Tuesday,he assumes "that this is a serious effort... to do something about arguably our biggest problem ." Asked whether there are any circumstances under which he could support tax increases, McConnell said he does not think it's agood idea to appoint membersto a commission, as he has done,and then "start telling them what they can and can't do." His own opinion though, McConnell said, was that, "we dont have this problem in the country because we tax too little.It's because we spend too much."