Dear Friend,

This past Saturday, the Senate stayed in session until nearly 5 a.m. voting on the Democrat’s budget, a first in four years, in addition to dozens of amendments from both sides of the aisle.

You can certainly be forgiven for not having watched the thrilling spectacle of Senators voting all night long, but some of the votes were important and I wanted to update you on the good, the bad and the ugly.

First, the fact that we even voted on a budget is a small sign of progress. If you believe as I do that government has grown too big and that we are spending too much money, the first step to fixing our mess is voting on a budget and putting politicians on the record.

The budget vote gave me the opportunity to bring a series of votes to the floor from many of my Republican colleagues, and believe it or not, we actually passed some good ones. The Senate approved support of the Keystone Pipeline and also repealed Obamacare tax on medical devices. We also took on the concept of “Too Big to Fail” and voted to end all taxpayer subsidies to big Wall Street Banks.

These votes brought Republicans and Democrats together and we were able to pass real solutions.

We still have a long way to go, but repealing the Medical Device Tax is a key victory in our fight for full repeal of Obamacare.

We also voted on an amendment by Senator Cruz for full repeal of Obamacare and a motion by Senator Kelly Ayotte to eliminate many of the President’s tax hikes. These unfortunately came up short, but many Democrats will now have to explain to their constituents why they continue to back Obamacare’s crippling bureaucracy and tax hikes in times of high unemployment.

Finally, we voted on the budget itself. I STRONGLY opposed the Democrat plan because it spent too much money, it raised taxes and grows the government at an alarming rate, added trillions to our debt, and fully funded Obamacare.

Fortunately, there was an alternative that I could support, proposed by my colleague from Kentucky, Senator Rand Paul. I was proud to lend my support to his plan that balanced in just five years and started paying back our debt thought cuts in wasteful government spending and bureaucracy.

I hope you'll stand with both of us in our battle to fix our fiscal mess and balance our budget.

There was another important vote I wanted to share with you. Rand and I introduced an amendment to help fix our infrastructure problem. Our amendment cut 15 billion dollars from programs like Obama’s green energy loans, and put it into a bridge fund for places like Kentucky, which desperately needs infrastructure repair.

I think that sets just the right priority.

If you agree, please help me fight back today against the attacks that are already coming my way.

These Obama-Democrats don't want the budget balanced.

They don't want your gun rights protected.

They don't want real healthcare reform in place of socialized medicine.

And they know I stand in their way, every day.

These battles and more will be coming up in a few short weeks. George Soros-funded extremist groups are already on the air.

I will fight back in Washington, but I must also fight back against them in Kentucky.

I hope I can count on your support today.



For Freedom,
Mitch McConnell
Republican Leader