“‘Right away’ is a relative term” - Sen. Harry Reid

[Ragnar]

Least we forget, Reid is at least as stupid and incompetent as Joe Biden...

McConnell planned to add the AJA as an amendment to the China currency bill currently under consideration in the Senate. “I wanted to disabuse [Obama] of the notion that somehow we’re unwilling to vote on his proposal,” McConnell said. But Reid “filled the tree,” taking advantage of his right of first recognition and adding so many amendments to the bill that McConnell was unable to tack the AJA to it, too. Reid then even went so far as to accuse McConnell of “obstruction” and engaging in “a political stunt.”

But, however he did it, the message Reid sent was loud and clear: He will do whatever it takes to delay a vote on the AJA, perhaps because he knows he lacks a filibuster-proof supermajority, perhaps because he knows support for the legislation will do little for Democrats on the campaign trail.

“‘Right away’ is a relative term,” Reid said, to explain why he’s untroubled by the president’s repeated calls for immediate action.

In light of the woeful lack of support for Obama’s bill in both chambers, how long will the president maintain the pretense of urgency he’s adopted to push the passage of his bill? How long will he pretend it’s a medicine with no unintended side effects for all our economic ails?

Reid resists McConnell’s move to take up the president’s jobs bill « Hot Air

Good questions all. Obama is in quite a pickle.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Given the way we have seen folks on this board behave about the bill, it seems that the democrats have come up with a new form of special relativity.

 

[ladyliberal]

It's extremely disingenuous to characterize McConnell's planned action as "tak[ing] up the president's jobs bill". The China currency bill, whatever its merits (I don't know much about it, but I don't like what I hear) is opposed by House Republicans: China Currency Bill Runs Into GOP Opposition - Bloomberg. Given that they've also vowed not to take up the jobs bill itself, McConnell's move could not possibly have led to an actual law being passed, and could easily have prevented legislation.

Given that the move Reid blocked wasn't advancing the jobs bill towards becoming a law, it's inaccurate to say that Reid was obstructing the bill. The only thing he was preventing was a losing vote on the bill.

Also, while I'd like quick action on the bill myself, Reid's comment that "right away" is a relative term was both accurate and relevant.

 

[whitehall]

Not much going on in Harry Reid's world these days. Is the liberal media giving him cover from Obama's bad polls or is he instructing his mind numbed democrat senators not to talk to the media. Virginia's democrat senator Jim Webb is calling it quits after one term. Is he one of the few independent thinkers who are fed up with crooked Harry Reid?

 

[Conservative]

I'd love to know what Obama thinks of Reid blocking his bill.

 

[Ragnar]

It's extremely disingenuous to characterize McConnell's planned action as "tak[ing] up the president's jobs bill". The China currency bill, whatever its merits (I don't know much about it, but I don't like what I hear) is opposed by House Republicans: China Currency Bill Runs Into GOP Opposition - Bloomberg. Given that they've also vowed not to take up the jobs bill itself, McConnell's move could not possibly have led to an actual law being passed, and could easily have prevented legislation.

Given that the move Reid blocked wasn't advancing the jobs bill towards becoming a law, it's inaccurate to say that Reid was obstructing the bill. The only thing he was preventing was a losing vote on the bill.

Also, while I'd like quick action on the bill myself, Reid's comment that "right away" is a relative term was both accurate and relevant.

That's the point.

The votes are not there at either the Senate or the House. Obama can call out Cantor or any other Republican villain of the week but almost no one on either side wants anything to do with the bill, least of all their names on it.

Granted the China bill only has a little more to do with jobs in America than say, student loans have to do with health care but that's just how Congress "works". If AJA could pass in the Senate then Obama could point to the House and claim "obstruction" on the campaign trail with some truthieness. But the votes are not there on either side.

Also Reid could have put the bill up clean right away but chose not to.

 

[Amelia]

Oh brother.

Reid doesn't want to touch the thing with a 10,000 foot pole.

Neither does any other Democrat in Congress.

 

[Ragnar]

Obama Gets Personal With GOP - Washington Wire - WSJ

Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring replied by emphasizing areas in which the parties can work together.

“House Republicans have different ideas on how to grow the economy and create jobs, but that shouldn’t prevent us from trying to find areas of common ground with the president,’’ Mr. Dayspring said. “That is precisely why Majority Leader Cantor has given his word to the president that the House will pass portions of his jobs bill this month.

“President Obama needs to understand that his ‘my way or the highway’ approach simply isn’t going to work in the House or the Democratic Senate,” he added.

Hmm