John McCain Lectures Tea Party Senator on How 'Business' Gets Done in Congress: 'That's What We've Been Doing for a Couple Hundred Years

Credit: AP

Speaking on Senate floor on Thursday, a fed-up Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) scolded Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) over his objection to initiating House-Senate budget negations unless a debt limit increase is taken off the table. It's a stance shared by another Tea Party favorite, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

McCain lectured Lee over such a proposal, saying it would "paralyze the process."

"The senator from Utah keeps talking about back-room, closed-door deals," McCain said, explaining how that's how stuff gets done in Congress. "How do we reconcile legislation that is passed by one body and the other body? That's what we've been doing for a couple hundred years."

McCain said Lee isn't proposing a different process of reconciling legislation between the House and the Senate. He went on to lecture Lee on the way business is done in Congress.

“Perhaps the senator from Utah doesn’t know about that," McCain continued, "the fact that even if they did raise the debt limit, it could not become law because it doesn’t go to the president of the United States. So again, maybe the senator from Utah ought to learn a little bit more about how business has been done in the Congress of the United States."

Watch the video via CSPAN/Mediaite below:

(H/T: Meenal Vamburkar, Mediaite)

Featured image via AP