Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement Tuesday following the President’s invitation for a bipartisan, bicameral meeting at the White House on Thursday to discuss the President’s request to raise the debt ceiling: 

“I view Thursday’s meeting as an opportunity for the congressional leadership and the President to talk about what’s actually possible. I view it as an opportunity to know whether or not the President will finally agree to a serious plan to reduce the deficit. Or if in the middle of a debt crisis, he’ll insist on more stimulus spending; whether in the middle of a jobs crisis, he’ll continue to insist on hundreds of billions in tax hikes that we know—and he has acknowledged—will kill jobs. Republicans in Congress believe that finding a way to reduce the deficit and prevent Medicare’s bankruptcy should be the goal. These discussions are not about rich and poor or an election but they’re about making Washington take the hit and make some tough choices for a change—not the taxpayers and job creators.”