( CNN ) -- In his strongest words to date , Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell , R-Kentucky , tried to quash talk that he would allow another government shutdown if he becomes Senate majority leader next year . `` Of course not . Remember me ? I am the guy that gets us out of shutdowns , '' McConnell told CNN in an exclusive interview Wednesday . `` It 's a failed policy , '' he said of shutdowns . Earlier this month , Politico reported that , if selected majority leader , McConnell plans to tell the president to accept bills reining in the administration 's policies or veto them and risk a government shutdown . Last year 's government shutdown was hardly a popular event , and McConnell 's Democratic opponent , Alison Lundergan Grimes , pounced on the story . `` Senator Gridlock 's shutdown promise will hurt Kentucky small businesses , '' screamed a Grimes campaign press release . McConnell opposed the last shutdown , fueled by a strategy from his fellow Republican Ted Cruz , R-Texas , to only fund the government by defunding Obamacare , which passed the GOP-led House but had no chance in the Senate . The shutdown backfired on Republicans , and after the government reopened , McConnell made clear he did not intend to go through it again , citing a Kentucky saying on the Senate floor : `` There 's no education in the second kick of a mule . '' Still , McConnell is vowing to try to roll back Obama regulations that Republicans loathe , especially EPA rules on coal that Kentuckians see as harmful to their coal-rich economy . He says he plans to do that , if the GOP takes control of the Senate in the midterm elections , by attaching those changes to spending bills as they move through Congress . `` One of the powers of Congress is to direct spending , and we 've had an abuse of bureaucracy across the board . It 's been particularly bad here in Kentucky with EPA and the coal industry , that needs to have some directions from Congress , '' McConnell told CNN . `` The reason Harry Reid wo n't allow votes on coal in the Senate is he is afraid it will pass , in other words it would actually pass with Democratic votes . We 're going to have those kind of votes next year if I 'm majority leader , '' said McConnell . He again underscored he has no intention of taking that strategy all the way to a government shutdown -- noting he is often the veteran legislator who comes in at the last minute negotiate a way out with Democrats . `` I 'm the guy that 's gotten us out of the shutdowns that some of our members have pushed us into in the past , '' said McConnell . But he also cautioned , `` That does not mean that you should send the president a total blank check with no restrictions at all on how the money is spent . ''
Mitch Daniels says they are ` ` against policy '' His foe in Ky. says he will allow them to occur . McConnell hopes to become Senate majority leader .