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It’s The Wrong Way or The Highway With Senator Harry Reid

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 29th, 2011 at 01:45 PM  | 

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Harry Reid's Compromise with Ability


Sen. Reid: “The only compromise that there is, is mine.”

– (Via RealClearPolitics.)

Apparently, Senator Reid has been re-reading the Brezhnev Doctrine. What belongs to Senator Reid belongs to Senator Reid. That which other people are allowed to own is negotiable. Reid is essentially threatening to kill the Boehner Bill over a few billion dollars of cuts and the requirement that the debt ceiling be raised again in 2012. As Ace of Spades bloggers would put it; but mostly over the requirement that the debt ceiling be raised in 2012.

Senator Reid announces quite grandly:

Sen. Reid: “We have said for weeks now we will not accept a short-term increase to the debt. Just can’t do that.”

(HT: Huffpo Insider)

This, of course, is buffoonery for two reasons. The nation did quite well for years with nearly bi-annual debt ceiling increases. Between 1981 and 2009, the debt ceiling has been raised a total of 38 times. Eighteen of them occurred under Ronald Reagan. The amounts of the hikes were substantially smaller each time as well.

Presidents of each party were allowed to issue more debt, but in every case, they got smaller increases and shorter terms over which to acquire the debt. The process was under far greater control. House Speaker Boehner’s two-part proposal reintroduces some of this badly-needed spending control.

Congressional budgeting provided another important component of all previous administration’s debt ceiling hikes. Under all previous administrations from, 1980 to 2009, Congress performed its duties and passed budgets to plan their appropriations. Senator Reid has gone 800 days without successfully submitting a passed US Senate Budget for reconciliation with the House. This makes his insistence on a clean debt ceiling raise for the next two years laughable.

If the US Senate were not capable of ruining people’s lives if they didn’t get their credit extension, people would respect them and Senator Reid about as much as they respect the junkie begging for spare change to score one more hit. But don’t worry, we’ll convene America’s 31st separate deficit commission and we’ll all get clean tomorrow. The always amusing Sen. Schumer chimes in.

Schumer: “The Boehner plan says we won’t default on you now but we will in January, it is absurd.”

(Huffpo Insider)

Of course Speaker Boehner’s plan says no such thing. Nothing says “my bonds should be rated no better than municipal bonds from Newark, NJ” quite like the failure to pass a budget for 800 days. Senator Schumer wouldn’t know honesty if it bit off his nose and served it to him on a biscuit.

I find it impossible to believe that people will continue to consider Senator Reid a legitimate statesman and leader. In fact, he is neither. He is poison. He is poison to the customs and traditions of the US Senate. He has been toxic to President Obama when he could have kept his fellow partisan out of a lot of unnecessary trouble the last three weeks. Most of all, he is poisonous to the future of America. Senator Reid doesn’t offer America compromise. He brings destructive mediocrity instead.

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COMMENTS

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  • izoneguy

    It is flat out nothing short of the most devastating destruction that can occur to this Republic. The re-election of Harry Reid has taken us closer to that Marxist utopia we keep hearing about. I just hope that 2012 won’t be too late to change course.

    • Flagstaff

      the corruption of Nevada politics by the gaming industry, maybe by others as well. There has to be SOME reason that Steve Wynn supported him financially.

      • earlgrey

        when I was still attending meetings there that was from Nevada and had experience as a union steward or something. I don’t remember exactly. Before we even had Angle as the nominee, he predicted Reid would win re-election even though Reid’s approval rating at the time was in the mid thirties.

  • funwithknives

    That Progressives,with their tactics and philosophies, are not “in their best interests? This Whopper of a Caution, should be displayed each and every time the GOP runs Informational Ads. “Our Way or The HighWay” is not compromise, no matter your persuasion. What a Nasty, Whiney excuse for a purported LEADER this Senator is. This is an example of Their Best and Brightest? Summarily Noted!

  • Kyle-MI

    Is Reid nuts? The GOP is at each others throats over Boehner’s plan. If he can get something through the Senate, the Dems come out smelling like roses. Reid can pass this with amendments that bring it closer to what he wants and then it goes to a conference committee. Nothing else is going to get through the house, and the clock is ticking. He is extremely delusional if he thinks he can get a better deal that will pass the House.

    • Tavern Keeper

      Or as Homer Simpson would say . . . “Stupid like a fox.”

    • Repair_Man_Jack

      He is a useless hack. He is a maundering fool. He is Wesley Mouch of Ayn Rand novel fame.

  • oleslow

    Senate Majority Ldr(R): ?Sen. Reid, the only compromise that there is, is mine.?

  • Finrod

    House Republicans are bloody fools if they agree to it. I’d rather have no cuts at all and a short-term debt extension ($400-500B) than cuts and a debt extension past November 2012.

    The Democrats have maxed out the United States’ credit card and now whine that they’re being made accountable for it. Let them suffer.

  • tea4me

    …i’ve listened to Levin and Rush and believe them when they say Boehner has made a back room deal with Reid and McConnell to bring back an even “more” bogus bill back to the House. But after going thru alll this…is it not probable that the House will stand firm for the one they’re passing today?

    Is there really ANY House Republicans that would vote for Reid’s changes? Is this really going to be a total cave by Repubiks when we get past Aug 2nd?

    As much sense as Levin and Rush make…I simply find it hard to believe that ANY Republican hoping to hold on to their seats will vote for anything returned from the Senate other than Boehner 3 “without the Librul changes to it”.

    • carolina

      I think Boehner has put his heart and soul into this negotiation, which does not mean I completely agree with every decision he has made. I applaud the TEA party House members for holding strong.
      I do not respect or trust BO’s spear carrier (Reid). Surely a number of the dem senators are dismayed.
      We shall see…….

    • carolina

      I think Boehner has put his heart and soul into this negotiation, which does not mean I completely agree with every decision he has made. I applaud the TEA party House members for holding strong.
      I do not respect or trust BO’s spear carrier (Reid). Surely a number of the dem senators are dismayed.
      We shall see…….

      • runner12

        Boehner talks a good game, but has yet to back it up.

        I will give him credit though, he can come across as extremely sincere when he wants to or when it benefits him politically.

        • silentcal2012

          Ethics had been a problem, Boehner has run a tight ship with no tolerance forcing Chris Lee out without any pause.

          He immediately passed a bill repealing ObamaCare as his first major act as Speaker.

          He helped orchestrate the ban on earmarks.

          He shepparded the the Ryan Roadmap through the House and defended it.

          He shepparded Cut Cap and Balance through the House.

          He has done it all with much more class, grace and good will than demostrated by talk radio host and bloogers.

          If this is who you force out, conservativism is dead. The GOP is dead. The Republic is dead.

          • runner12

            A,) Boehner did not do squat, the new House members forced all of the above.

            B). The vote on CCB was symbolic for Boehner and everyone but you knows it, He was actively colluding and negotiating with Reid and Obama, even as CCB was being voted on, He did nothing to fight for it.

            C). Ryan roadmap- see above. Boehner pushed that guy into a corner out of the way when the fur started flying.

            D, ) ObamaCare- another vote with little fight afterwards to defund it. He and
            the House promised to defund it. Remember?

            E.) On earmarks, I will give him credit. He has never taken an earmark and that
            is something in Washington. I will also add that he is more conservative
            than Cantor.

            The problem with Boehner is his lack of leadership when faced with opposition. It is easy for anyone to make decisions when there is no conflict or opposition, but it takes a true LEADER to forge ahead when the obstacles are many. Boehner has shown himself to be without this quality.

            I read in article that just before Boehner went up to deliver the rebuttle to
            Obama’s speech this week he whispered to an aide ” I did not sign up for this job to go mano-a-mano with the President of the United States.”

            In all fairness, he may have been kidding. But it does say something doesn’t it?
            If Boehner expected that the people elected him and others to just block Obama’s agenda and nothing else, he was mistaken. We want that AND some action on the new House members to roll back the tide of big government.

    • ghostship

      However the GOP leadership is much more of the Establishment type and comfortable with the idea of big government. They’re not as crazy about it as the Democrats but they are much more favorable to it than us Conservatives who make up the base.

      That’s why they don’t fight as hard as many of us want them to when it comes to spending and the size of government. Unless their feet are consistently held to fire they will support legislation more in tune to the values of the left than they will to the right.

      The only long term solution is to change the makeup of the Establishment by getting involved at the local level but unfortunately that will take a long time and this country might not have enough time left. Still, us Conservatives having our own version of the long march through the institutions is really the only sound way to effect long term change on the Republican Party.

  • tea4me

    …this is all on them. Who gives a flick what the loon media says about US backruptcy being on Republicans.. They’ll actually be right.