Reid Schools Republicans, ‘The government should open because it never should have been closed.’

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:20 am

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid didn’t fall for the Republican dirty bomb and neither did President Obama.

As the news broke that President Obama was not going to be fooled by the dirty bombs in the House Republicans’ 6 week offer to extend their hostage taking into Christmas, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) ‏tweeted, “President has shown willingness to talk. Problem is that it’s a one-way conversation; Republicans are not interested in being constructive.”

President has shown willingness to talk. Problem is that it’s a one-way conversation; Republicans are not interested in being constructive.

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) October 12, 2013

As Jason Easley explained this morning, Senator Reid is correct. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) did not offer a clean debt ceiling bill. He offered a dirty bomb set to explode at Christmas, which is like offering to take the most hostages possible. That is the direct opposite of what Obama told Republicans he would accept.

On the Senate floor Saturday, Reid also schooled Republicans on their shutdown, “Allowing government to operate again that’s not a a favor to me, that’s not a favor to the presiding officer, that’s not a favor to Democrats this side of the aisle. It’s something that should just happen. The government should open because it should never have closed in the first place.”

Again, for the simpletons, President Obama will not be accepting anything that does not put this nation first. That means no hostages. Republicans need to pay the bills as the Constitution mandates they must. Our debt is not something Republicans can just refuse to pay Constitutionally. So much for the Tea Party’s alleged love for even the cliff notes version of the Constitution.

Manu Raju, Senior Congressional Reporter for Politico, tweeted that the Senate Democrats rejected Senator Collins plan because it “asks too much for too little”:

NEWS: Senate Dem leaders rejecting Collins plan, arguing it asks too much for too little. Focus now shifts to Reid and McConnell.

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 12, 2013

So it falls to Reid and McConnell in the Senate, even as voices clamor to bring in Mr. Fix It, it’s a BFD, V.P. Joe Biden.

“I was happy to see the Republicans engaged in talks with the president, the House Republicans. That’s over with. It’s done. They’re not talking anymore,” Majority Leader Harry Reid said according to Politico. “I say to my friends on the Republican side of this Senate, time is running out.”

Time is running out. This Thursday, we default unless Republicans drop their guns.

John Boehner and House Republicans are still trying to trick Obama and the Democrats. By doing so, they are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of American voters. There has been far too much gamesmanship going on.

Last night, I wrote that Republicans have not offered one single thing from the Democrats’ agenda. All Republicans are offering is to wait until Christmas to blow the country up, because even more people and businesses would be terrified then, so they’d have a bigger ransom. For this, Republicans expect their fiscal “agenda” to be enacted, even though the voters roundly rejected it.

Here’s the key for Republicans. Reid said Obama “has been willing” to talk. Obama is willing to talk about budget negotiations after Republicans drop the gun. No doubt the President explained this during their meeting so that even Republicans could understand that he meant business.

Real negotiations would look like this: Republicans agree to fund the government and do their Constitutional duty to pay our bills with no conditions, after all, they are not terrorists. AFTER these things are in order, Republicans would finally be willing to have that budget conference they refused to attend all summer. At this conference, the two sides would negotiate, which means that each side would get a few things and each side would give a few things. (Hint: The budget would not resemble Paul Ryan’s budget that even Republicans couldn’t make work.)

And that is exactly why House Republicans have been avoiding conference, because they do not want to concede anything. It’s all their way or the country gets it. They continue to ignore the warnings from the grown ups that this is not play. The GOP tempter tantrum is actually getting worse instead of better, as their defiance to discipline and reality causes them to escalate their bad behavior.

If Republicans keep on like this, they will force people to admit that they are out of control and need to be removed from power. This is no way to run a country.