Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is willing to do almost anything to pass the Republican agenda in the Senate next year, including another government shutdown.

The three-decades long Senator is facing re-election in the fall and is taking an aggressive, if not reckless, approach to his campaign strategy.

His plan, if Republicans take the majority, is simple: make President Obama accept the Republican administration’s bills, or veto them and risk a government shutdown.

“We’re going to pass spending bills, and they’re going to have a lot of restrictions on the activities of the bureaucracy. That’s something he won’t like, but that will be done. I guarantee it.”

McConnell pledged that if Republicans take control of the Senate after the 2014 election, he will attach riders to spending bills that would either limit or fully restrict the President’s bureaucratic leeway. These restrictions could be on anything from abortion policy to health care reform.

When asked by Politico if his aggressive approach could spark another shutdown, McConnell said it would be up to the President to decide whether to veto spending bills that would keep the government open.

“Obama needs to be challenged, and the best way to do that is through the funding process. He would have to make a decision on a given bill, whether there’s more in it that he likes than dislikes.”

Basically he’s saying that the President does what Republicans want, or President Obama takes the heat for causing a government shutdown.

Ironically enough, not even a year ago, McConnell made a statement expressing his disdain for shutdowns as a solution.

“One of my favorite sayings is an old Kentucky saying, ‘There’s no education in the second kick of a mule.’ The first kick of the mule was in 1995; the second one was the last 16 days,” he said when asked whether the Republican Party would bring the government to a halt again. “A government shutdown is off the table. We’re not going to do it.”

So what made him change his mind?

The last shutdown was a disastrous low point for the GOP.

Compromise is possible.

Shutting down everything because you aren’t getting your way seems reckless, irresponsible and a bit childish.

Definitely not in the best interest of the nation’s people.

Of course this only happens if Republicans take control this fall, and even then it will be hard to pull off.

McConnell would need to unite the Republican Party, which is not an easy task with the steadily forming divisions between establishment and anti-establishment politicians.

Let’s cross our fingers that the Democrats will stay in control after this upcoming election.