Politics / Mitch McConnell McConnell: Big Deficit Deal Is Dead Top Republican blames White House insistence on tax hikes By Polly Davis Doig, Newser Staff Posted Jul 10, 2011 9:16 AM CDT Copied Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks with reporters following a weekly Republican lunch on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 28, 2011. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Mitch McConnell is jumping right on John Boehner's pronouncement last night that a broad deal on the deficit is impossible, reports Politico. Appearing on Fox News Sunday this morning, the Senate's top Republican said the White House's insistence that a $4 trillion deal be accompanied by tax hikes doomed such a measure. "It is because everything they've told me and the speaker is that to get a big package would require big tax increases in the middle of an economic situation that’s extraordinarily difficult with 9.2 percent unemployment—we think it’s a terrible idea, it's a job killer," McConnell said. Click for McConnell's current thoughts on making Barack Obama a one-term president. (More Mitch McConnell stories.) Report an error