Tag Archives: Harry Reid

50-49: Senate narrowly passes Democratic budget for 2014

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U.S. Senate approves its first budget since 2009
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, March 23, 2013 6:38 EDT

The US Senate reached a milestone early Saturday when it overcame partisan gridlock to approve its first budget resolution in four years, setting up a political duel with the Republican-held House.

The sweeping plan for fiscal year 2014, the first budget blueprint passed by the Democrat-led Senate under President Barack Obama since 2009, squeaked by by the narrowest of margins, 50-49. [...]

The plan, shepherded by Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray, seeks nearly $1 trillion in new revenue over the next decade, mostly through the closure of tax loopholes that favor the wealthy, and an equal amount in reductions to government spending.

The House of Representatives on Thursday adopted its own budget resolution, which seeks to reach balance within 10 years through significant reductions in federal spending, the overhaul of entitlements like Medicare and the repeal of Obama’s health care law.

The glaring partisanship of Congress ensures that neither plan will be enacted into law. Instead they will serve as the starting points for a broader debate this year over budget policy.

SOME DETAILS: 

  • 100 amendments were voted on in a marathon, 13-hour session known in the Senate as a “vote-a-rama.
  • The parties’ leaders contended with more than 560 filed amendments. Most fell by the wayside and were not voted on, but there were key amendments that were approved, including a repeal of an unpopular tax on medical devices that was enacted as part of “Obamacare.”
  • Senators also went on record in support of the Keystone Pipeline.

SFGate: 

  • Joining all Republicans voting no were four Democrats who face re-election next year in potentially difficult races: Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., did not vote.
  • The Senate’s budget would shrink annual federal shortfalls over the next decade to nearly $400 billion, raise unspecified taxes by $975 billion and cull modest savings from domestic programs.
  • They also voiced support for eliminating the $2,500 annual cap on flexible spending account contributions imposed by Obama’s health care overhaul.
  • [They voted] for charging regular postal rates for mailings by political parties, which currently qualify for the lower prices paid by non-profits.
  • In a rebuke to one of the Senate’s most conservative members, they overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to cut even deeper than the House GOP budget and eliminate deficits in just five years.
  • Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget claims $4 trillion more in savings… by digging deeply into Medicaid, food stamps and other safety net programs for the needy. It would also transform the Medicare health care program for seniors into a voucher-like system for future recipients.
  • They voted in favor of giving states more powers to collect sales taxes on online purchases their citizens make from out-of-state Internet companies.
  • Shoehorned into the package is $100 billion for public works projects and other programs aimed at creating jobs.

NEXT UP: this summer’s hostage crisis. 

48 hours: the GOP will crack first when the sequester hits (they’re cracking already)

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Josh Marshall sees the GOP caving sooner rather than later after the sequester hits in 48 hours. Apparently they’ll have to actually observe for themselves that Obama won’t cave and then… reality will hit.

So sequestration will begin. Obama won’t cave. And then the tension sequestration was intended to create — and in fact has created — between defense hawks and the rest of the GOP will intensify and actually splinter the party. If that doesn’t happen quickly enough, then the sequestration fight will become tangled up in the need to renew funding for the federal government at the end of March. If Republicans don’t cave before then, they’ll precipitate a 1995-style government shutdown, public opinion will actually begin to control the outcome, and it’ll be game over.

So there are real dynamics at work here that can break the GOP’s resolve in this fight but that can’t easily be turned against Obama. Which means even though months of sequestration and a government shutdown followed by Obama folding outright is a theoretically possible outcome, there’s very little about the nature of the fight to make me think it’s likely to happen.

In an earlier post, Marshall says:

…I check in on Twitter to get a feel for the political chatter of the moment. One thing struck me last night: Republicans as a group couldn’t decide between two not really consistent takes on the drama. Either a) it’s a lie that across the board cuts in spending will damage domestic or national security or make anyone starve in the streets or b) it’s an unmitigated disaster for which President Obama is entirely responsible. Tea Party Senator Ron Johnson says John Boehner will lose his Speakership if he agrees to more taxes (not likely). Folks in the House are pledging the President won’t break them. This is what a crack up looks like.

Meanwhile at the White House: A Balanced Plan to Avert the Sequester and Reduce the Deficit

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And meanwhile in the Speaker’s office: John Boehner: Sequester Requires Senate To Get ‘Off Their Ass’ (VIDEO)

Get off their ass?! Boehner just came off a week-long vacation!

Steve Benen reviews Boehner’s impotence: 

So, as Boehner starts to lose his cool in public, let’s pause and help him understand the one detail the Speaker seems to have forgotten: in this Congress, House Republicans have done no work on the sequester. Literally, none. Boehner and his caucus haven’t voted on an alternative; they haven’t unveiled a substitute plan; they haven’t shown up for bipartisan negotiations. Since this Congress has gotten underway, Speaker and his team have known this threat is coming, and they’ve done absolutely nothing about it except whine in public.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have put together a compromise plan that requires concessions from both sides So when Boehner demands that senators get “off their ass,” the Speaker isn’t just being crude, and he isn’t just being dishonest, he’s actually been reduced to irony.

[...] Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) added that Boehner would lose his speakership if he struck a bipartisan compromise.

Let’s not brush past the significance of this: with dangerous sequestration cuts looming, a bipartisan compromise is now impossible because the Speaker of the House is impotent. He can’t turn off the threat he helped create because his followers won’t let him. He can’t delay the threat, either, because his followers won’t tolerate it. And he can’t compromise because those darned followers have deemed that unacceptable, too.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says, ”the reason (Boehner)’s not bringing something up over there is, he can’t pass it. He can’t get his caucus to agree on anything.” And House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer believes that House Republican leaders are ”constrained by fear of the Tea Party.”

Because the GOP has no vision or planning skills, it’ll have come to this:


azspot: Rob Rogers: Political Theater

A ‘Republicans Are Always SO Classy!’ Update

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If you think you can’t afford to tip your server, then maybe you should eat at home:

Left in lieu of a tip. Gotta love those Republicans, huh? Share on FB.
Source: early-onset-of-night

Here’s the always classy John McCain, and his argument against Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel (via Steve Benen):

“Chuck Hagel served our nation with honor in Vietnam and I congratulate him on this nomination. I have serious concerns about positions Senator Hagel has taken on a range of critical national security issues in recent years, which we will fully consider in the course of his confirmation process before the Senate Armed Services Committee.” – John McCain (R-Ariz.)

Let’s put aside, at least for now, McCain’s skills when it comes to evaluating officials for high public office (ahem), and instead consider why Hagel’s “positions on a range of critical national security issues” were fine in 2008, when McCain wanted Hagel in his own cabinet, but raise “serious concerns” now. How does McCain explain this? As best as I can tell, he doesn’t.

And look at this conservative example of ladylike manners and social elegance out of  Connecticut (via Capitol Watch):

State Rep. DebraLee Hovey, who represents Newtown and Monroe, posted this on her public FB page. From Florida. (Note: Hovey removed the post from her public Facebook page on Sunday afternoon). Gabby Giffords visited local officials and Sandy Hook families Friday in meetings that were closed to the press.

debralee hovey

She had more to say in this comment thread: “It was political. The Lt Gov was there, Blumenthall was there and ALL political types know it is courteous to let sitting Reps know when another political is in their District. So…… There was pure political motives.” She removed the item Sunday, according to the report.”

DebraLee Hovey 3

I wonder how her colleagues in the General Assembly feel about this sentiment.

Later, DebraLee (which is the feminine form of BillyBob) posted one of those familiar “conditional” Republican apologies (emphasis mine): 

“The remarks I made regarding Congresswoman Gifford’s visit were insensitive and if I offended anyone I truly apologize. My comments were meant to be protective of the privacy of the families and our community as we work to move on, and were in no way intended as an insult to Congresswoman Giffords personally. Our community has struggled greatly through this tragedy, and we are all very sensitive to the potential for this event to be exploited for political purposes. This is what I wish to avoid.”

John Boehner declared last week that he won’t be holding any more one-on-one negotiations with President Obama (despite the fact that Republicans need him to sign off on changes to federal taxing and spending), he now feels free to share the details of their weeks of unsuccessful talks. Unsurprisingly, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal‘s Stephen Moore, Boehner says most of the fault lies with the president … and he confirmed that he told Harry Reid to “go fuck yourself“ (via Daily Intelligencer)

The Club For Growth is a Republican organization because they’re as classy as their members / donors (via LGF):

You may have heard the news that 67 Republicans voted against Hurricane Sandy relief funding… Republicans who decided not to punish the blue states, however, will now be punished themselves by receiving a negative rating on the Club for Growth purity test: Club for Growth Will Punish Members Voting for Sandy Flood Aid.

And of the 67 Republicans who voted against Sandy relief? More than half — 37 of them! — had previously supported disaster aid for their own home states.

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Classy driver who probably helped vote in the do-nothing congress of 2010.

113th Congress sworn in today, good fcking riddance to the 112th

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Portrait of the 113th Congress – The Hill: “In the House, there will be a roll call vote at 11 a.m. for new members and the swearing-in at noon, followed by a ceremonial swearing-in in the Rayburn House Office building at 3 p.m., which is where new members will get their photo taken with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). The lower chamber will gain 82 new lawmakers on Thursday: 35 Republicans and 47 Democrats. This year’s Republican freshman class is much smaller than the legendary class of 2010, which caused many headaches for Boehner.”


think-progress: Meet the Senate’s new women caucus.

A primer for the 113th Congress – latimes.com: “Democrats gained slight ground in both houses in the 2012 election, though control of both remained in the same hands: Democrats still run the Senate and Republicans the House. The GOP leads, 234 representatives to 201, in the House, having lost eight seats to Democrats. And in the Senate, Democrats lead, 55-45, counting independent Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, who will caucus with them. Republicans lost two seats and Democrats gained two, including the closely watched race in Massachusetts between Elizabeth Warren and departing Sen. Scott Brown. The incoming congressional class features a record number of female (100), Latino (31), Asian American (12) and openly gay or bisexual (7) members, along with 43 African Americans.”

FLASHBACK: Two years ago – 112th Congress sworn in, GOP flexes muscles: With the ceremonial swearing in of the 112th Congress, Republicans have taken control of the House of Representatives, promising a fierce challenge to President Barack Obama and the potential for legislative gridlock in the countdown to the 2012 presidential election. Rep. John Boehner, a long-serving Ohioan from a working-class background, was awarded the speaker’s gavel Wednesday, ending the historic term of Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco liberal who was the first woman to preside over the House. The speaker is second-in-line for the presidency after the vice president.

[...] Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell said the voters had made it clear they “want lawmakers to cut Washington, tackle the debt, rein in government and to help create the right conditions for private sector growth.”…Many Republican freshmen will feel obliged to answer the call of hardcore conservative constituencies that sent them to Washington on contentious matters such as the need to raise the federal debt limit…..By way of example, House leaders set their first spending cut vote for Thursday, a 5 percent reduction in the amount spent for lawmakers’ and committees’ offices and leadership staff. Aides estimate the savings at $35 million over the next nine months. Republicans have pledged to vote at least once a week on bills that cut spending. And the new House Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor, challenged Obama to include significant spending cuts in his State of the Union address on Jan. 25. But Republicans acknowledge they must do more than simply oppose Obama’s every proposal, as they did the past two years of Democratic rule.

Hahahahaa…

The fiscal cliff and political narratives: what to expect with the debt ceiling

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Ezra Klein explains our current political narrative,“the country is caught between pragmatists who can’t hold their ground and radicals who can’t compromise”, and what it means for the upcoming debt ceiling negotiations.

“But both Republicans and Democrats can’t be right. If we take the lessons of this negotiation, here’s what will happen: The White House will negotiate over the debt ceiling. They’ll say they’re not negotiating over the debt ceiling, and in the end, they may well refuse to be held hostage over the debt ceiling, but the debt ceiling will be part of the pressure Republicans use to force the next deal. The White House fears default, and in the end, they always negotiate.

That said, the Republicans aren’t quite as crazy as they’d like the Democrats to believe. They were scared to take the country over the fiscal cliff. They’re going to be terrified to force the country into default, as the economic consequences would be calamitous. They know they need to offer the White House a deal that the White House can actually take — or at least a deal that, if the White House doesn’t take it, doesn’t lead to Republicans shouldering the blame for crashing the global economy. That deal will have to include taxes, though the tax increases could come through reform rather than higher rates.”

The White House will (have to) negotiate over the debt ceiling, and Republicans will (have to) offer the White House a deal that includes taxes — expect outrage from the far left and right! Because if either side were to go completely off-script:

“[...] there’s a third possibility, too: That the White House is wrong [that] the Republicans will compromise, that the Republicans are wrong that the White House will fold, and so we really will breach the debt ceiling, unleashing economic havoc.”

Reindeer games on New Year’s Eve

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McConnell called Biden into the negotiations yesterday, even though Biden has offered nothing different from Reid:

McConnell and Biden, who served in the Senate together for 23 years, are closing in on an agreement that would hike tax rates for families who earn more than $450,000, and individuals who make more than $400,000, according to sources familiar with talks.

The vice president and the Senate minority leader only began talking Sunday, after negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and McConnell sputtered.

Sources close to the talks said a deal is now more likely to come together but cautioned that obstacles remain, including how Speaker John Boehner and House Republican leaders react to any tentative agreement.

“The leader and the VP continued their discussion late into the evening and will continue to work toward a solution. More info as it becomes available,” a McConnell spokesman said.

Yesterday McConnell dropped one of his party’s demands — chained CPI:

Earlier in the day, negotiations between Reid and McConnell suffered a “major setback” after Republicans demanded the inclusion of a new method for calculating entitlement benefits as part of the cliff package, according to Democrats.

The provision, known as “chained CPI,” is opposed by many liberals because it would result in lower payments for Social Security beneficiaries.

[...] On the Senate floor early on Sunday, Reid ruled out any cuts to Social Security as part of any cliff agreement.

And what if we do go over the cliff?

Democrats later left a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting on Sunday afternoon united, with many prepared to go over the cliff if no amenable deal is reached.

“The world won’t end — remember Y2K?” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). “If this thing goes on, all of a sudden, the people find out there’s a lot of revenue coming into the government — and we have a sequester that we can deal with in January and February, and I think we will. I think then perhaps — then Republicans won’t have to vote to raise taxes, we’ll all be voting to cut taxes.”

You know what? Finally we have a united Democratic Caucus willing to stand up to the Republicans. That’s a pretty good way to start a new year.

Harry Reid this afternoon: “…we are apart on some pretty big issues.”

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Pres. Obama was right. From Steve Benen:

“What seems to be the trouble? As of this afternoon, McConnell is demanding chained CPI, and wants more tax breaks for the wealthiest of the wealthy through higher estate-tax thresholds. He’s also refusing to include a debt-ceiling increase in the agreement.

Or put another way, in a literal sense, Republicans are holding up middle class tax breaks by demanding cuts to Social Security benefits and a tax break for the top 0.01% of the country — all while laying the groundwork for another hostage crisis in two months.”

Tell me again how both sides do it — how there’s no difference between the parties.

35 hours (or so) to go: the Senate / Democratic Plan A and Plan B on tax rate increases

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“…by all accounts, the Reid/McConnell agreement, if it exists, will not be a sweeping deal along the lines of a grand bargain. It would instead focus primarily on tax rates — the $400,000 income threshold increasingly appears to be a precondition for the GOP — extended unemployment insurance, the Medicare “doc fix,” the alternative minimum tax, the estate tax, and a series of tax incentives for businesses and families, many of which were included in the Recovery Act.

The Senate plan would not, if all goes according to plan, deal with the sequester, the existing payroll tax break, or the debt ceiling. Why not? Because Republicans still hope to continue work on a larger (grander) debt-reduction deal in the new year.

In other words, even if there’s unexpected progress today and tomorrow on Capitol Hill, some deadlines will go unmet and the stage will be set for yet another self-inflicted crisis in a couple of months.

While we wait to see if/when a Senate plan comes together, there is a contingency plan — apparently Democrats have a Plan B of their own — in the event McConnell and Reid can’t reach an agreement (or the Senate rejects their deal). On Monday, if all else fails, Reid will bring a simple package to the floor: lower rates on income up to $250,000 and extended jobless aid. That’s it. If Senate Republicans kill it, the deadlines will pass and Democrats will try again in 2013. If the Senate passes it and the House balks, we’ll see the same outcome.

Obama and Reid seem to like their chances: GOP officials don’t want their final act of this Congress to be a vote against middle-class tax breaks, and complete failure would almost certainly give Democrats leverage in the new year anyway.”

Steve Benen: Where things stand

The adults make a last-ditch effort on the fiscal cliff

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Reuters: Obama said he was “modestly optimistic” that an agreement could be found that would prevent taxes going up for almost all working Americans.

If things cannot be worked out in the Senate, Obama said he wanted both chambers in Congress to vote on a plan of his that would increase taxes only for households earning more than $250,000 a year.

The plan would also extend unemployment insurance for about 2 million Americans and set up a framework for a larger deficit reduction deal next year.

“The hour for immediate action is here. It is now. We’re now at the point where in just four days, every American’s tax rates are scheduled to go up by law. Every American’s paycheck will get considerably smaller. And that would be the wrong thing to do,” Obama told reporters.

He was speaking after an hour-long meeting in the White House with the two Senate leaders plus their counterparts in the House, Republican Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

A total of $600 billion in tax hikes and cuts to government spending will start kicking in on Tuesday if politicians cannot reach a deal, which could push the U.S. economy into a recession.

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The President’s Weekly Address: Congress must protect the Middle Class from income tax hike –


…

In part:

“For the past couple months, I’ve been working with people in both parties — with the help of business leaders and ordinary Americans — to come together around a plan to grow the economy and shrink our deficits.

It’s a balanced plan — one that would protect the middle class, cut spending in a responsible way, and ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more. And I’ll keep working with anybody who’s serious about getting a comprehensive plan like this done — because it’s the right thing to do for our economic growth.

In just a couple days, the law says that every American’s tax rates are going up. Every American’s paycheck will get a lot smaller. And that would be the wrong thing to do for our economy. It would hurt middle-class families, and it would hurt the businesses that depend on your spending.

Congress can prevent it from happening if they act now.

Leaders in Congress are working on a way to prevent this tax hike on the middle class, and I believe we may be able to reach an agreement that can pass both houses in time.

But if an agreement isn’t reached on time, then I’ll urge the Senate to hold an up-or-down vote on a basic package that protects the middle class from an income tax hike, extends vital unemployment insurance for Americans looking for a job, and lays the groundwork for future progress on more economic growth and deficit reduction.” …

Today’s last-ditch summit at the White House

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The Washington Post: “President Obama summoned congressional leaders to a Friday summit at the White House in a last-ditch effort to protect taxpayers, unemployed workers and the fragile U.S. recovery from severe austerity measures set to hit in just four days. The White House said Obama and Vice President Biden would host the four senior lawmakers — Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — at the Oval Office meeting Friday at 3 p.m. EST.”

Steve Benen answers questions about White House negotiations today:

What is it, exactly, these folks have to talk about?

Putting aside all the posturing, press releases, and finger pointing, the fact remains that nothing has changed except the calendar. Republicans still don’t intend to compromise, don’t want to present specific ideas to further their own goals, and don’t intend to act until the president negotiates with himself, coming up with a plan filled with preemptive concessions, predicated on guesses as to what GOP officials might find acceptable.

So what’s the point of today’s White House chat?

I suspect one of two scenarios is true:

1. Participants have been very quietly working out the details of a compromise, and today’s meeting is about sealing the deal while working out a legislative strategy. They’re closer than is publicly known, and today, they’ll try to work out the final details.

2. Everyone knows failure is inevitable, and there’s no way a deal can be reached with Republican extremists, especially with so little time remaining, so today’s meeting is motivated by theatrics — they’ll go through the motions so no one can say they didn’t at least try to sit in a room and talk to one another.

If I were a betting man, I’d put money on the latter.

I have a third question: did Democrats plan to go over the cliff all along?

Republicans have abandoned their posts in the fiscal cliff negotiations, officially AWOL

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Steve Benen on John Boehner’s ridiculous “pass” to the Senate:

Left with no “Plan C,” it’s come to this: hope the Senate can figure something out.

After a high-level telephone conference call, House Republican leaders called on the Senate to act but opened the door to bringing to the House floor any last-minute legislation the Senate could produce.

“The House will take this action on whatever the Senate can pass, but the Senate first must act,” said the statement issued on behalf of Speaker John A. Boehner and his three top lieutenants.

If you’re thinking, “Wait, this doesn’t make any sense,” you’re not alone. For one thing, the Senate already acted, passing a bill to freeze lower rates on income up to $250,000, and the House GOP leadership is choosing not to take up the Senate version. For another, there’s a Democratic majority in the Senate — are Harry Reid and his caucus expected to just guess what kind of plan can generate some modicum of Republican support?

Boehner and House Republicans are still on Christmas vacation — what are they supposed to do… come back to DC? Work?

What are Democrats doing?

A week from today, the Senate Democratic majority gets bigger (and more progressive), the House Democratic minority gets bigger (and more progressive), and the pressure on Congress will be overwhelming to resolve the standoff. Don’t underestimate the Democratic desire to wait and see how much better the deal may be after the deadline than before it.

Harry Reid says it looks like we’re going over the fiscal cliff, is Boehner’s fault

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Business Insider: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said this morning that it “looks like” Congress will fail to come to a deal to avert the year-end fiscal cliff. ”It looks like that’s where we’re headed,” Reid said. “I don’t know, time-wise, how it can happen now.” [...]

“Reid opened the Senate session by launching into a lengthy criticism of the House and Speaker John Boehner, saying he “seems to care more about his Speakership” than making a deal on the cliff. The House is being run “by a dictatorship of the Speaker,” Reid said. He accused Boehner of waiting until the election of the Speaker on Jan. 3 to get involved with negotiations. And he urged the lower chamber to pass the Middle Class Tax Cut Act, which the Senate narrowly passed in July. The bill made permanent all of the Bush-era tax cuts on incomes of less than $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals. Reid also slammed the House for not being in session on Thursday. He said that instead of being in Washington, Republicans are “out watching movies.”

“They had to have a conference call,” he said.”

“It’s official: Republicans hate the UN more than they like helping people in wheelchairs.”

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gifs: sandandglass

More from Anne Laurie / Balloon Juice:

Lawrence Downes, in the NYTImes, on “A Parting Slap Against Bob Dole & Disabled Americans“:

Former Senator Bob Dole, 89 years old and in a wheelchair, went onto to the floor of the Senate today to urge his former colleagues to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. Mr. Dole, a disabled veteran, has been one of the leading voices urging ratification of the treaty, which seeks to bring the world closer to the high standard set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the landmark civil-rights law enacted under President George H.W. Bush.

One by one, according to Roll Call, the senators approached Mr. Dole to pat his shoulder or clasp his hand, making gestures of respect for the man who was for many years the Republican majority leader.

Then he was wheeled away, and all but a handful of the Republicans bailed out on him. The treaty failed. It needed a two-thirds vote to pass, or 67 votes, and fell six short…

In other words, these cowards didn’t have the guts to disagree with a crippled octogenarian to his face. [...] Senator Kerry:

.. Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement after the vote: “This is one of the saddest days I’ve seen in almost 28 years in the Senate, and it needs to be a wake-up call about a broken institution that’s letting down the American people.”

He added: “Today the dysfunction hurt veterans and the disabled, and that’s unacceptable. This treaty was supported by every veterans group in America and Bob Dole made an inspiring and courageous personal journey back to the Senate to fight for it. It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter. We won’t give up on this and the Disabilities Treaty will pass because it’s the right thing to do, but today I understand better than ever before why Americans have such disdain for Congress and just how much must happen to fix the Senate so we can act on the real interests of our country.”

Also too:

… Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said the measure would return to the Senate floor in the 113th Congress.

“It is a sad day when we cannot pass a treaty that simply brings the world up to the American standard for protecting people with disabilities because the Republican Party is in thrall to extremists and ideologues,” he said in a statement. 

Senator Harry Reid calls John McCain on his Benghazi bullshit

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“One of you, Senator McCain, has gone so far as to make the outrageous claim that this event was “worse than Watergate”—despite the fact that there is no evidence that any crime was committed, no evidence of any cover-up, and no evidence that the administration has characterized the incident in any way that has not been consistent with the Intelligence Community’s contemporaneous assessments.”

— Harry Reid, rejecting McCain’s request to form a Senate committee to investigate the attack on Benghazi last September. McCain had made the request in part because, per internal Senate rules, he’s term-limited out of his seat as ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the formation of a new committee would allow him another perch from which to delve into the Benghazi matter. Reid derided McCain’s request as an attempt to use the Senate as “a venue for baseless partisan attacks,” and excoriated the senator for skipping a classified briefing on the incident in order to hold a press conference. source (via shortformblog)

Related: 

Romney in Louisiana: “Did the water come from the sky, or the rivers, or the ocean?”

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National Journal: “Meeting with fellow Republican Jindal in the flooded Lafitte area of Jefferson Parish, Romney said, “I appreciate the chance to be here. I have a lot of questions for you. I’m here to learn and obviously to draw some attention to what’s going here, so that people around the country know that people down here need help.”

“Jindal, who had not attended the GOP convention in Tampa because of the storm, lauded the contributions of the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other organizations amid a scene of downed trees, high water, and National Guard troops. Romney expressed concern about the welfare of the 5,000 residents, some of whom had evacuated. He then asked, according to a journalists’ pool report of the visit: “Did the water come from the sky, or the rivers, or the ocean?

“[...] President Obama will travel to Louisiana on Monday, the White House announced on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued a statement criticizing Romney’s Louisiana visit as the “height of hypocrisy,” saying that vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s budget plan in Congress would cut funding for disaster relief.”

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) talks with a man on the side of the road while touring a hurricane damaged neighorhood on August 31, 2012 in Lafitte, Louisiana. Days after Hurricane Isaac pounded Louisiana, Mitt Romney visited the state to view a neighborhood devastated by the storm.
Photo: Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) talks with a man on the side of the road while touring a hurricane damaged neighborhood on August 31, 2012 in Lafitte, Louisiana. … Source: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America

“Your man” Mitt looks a bit baffled and confused, buddy. I don’t think Mitt’s who you’re going to want to turn to with this problem. And look at the guy behind Mitt (Note: the guy is Diaper David Vitter–caught by Ken), reading this guy’s sign and obviously thinking, “Reeeally. That’s just sad.”