Harry Reid Plans To Pay Back Mitch McConnell For Years Of Republican Obstruction

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In a new interview, soon to be Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid plans to pay back Mitch McConnell and the Republicans for years of obstruction by bottling up McConnell’s agenda.

Politico detailed Sen. Reid’s (D-NV) strategy,

Reid, now, may pay back Republicans — since he plans to bottle up McConnell’s agenda if the GOP leader moves to rein in Obamacare, environmental regulations, immigration policies or women’s issues like abortion rights.

His relationship problems don’t stop with Republicans. He’ll also have to deal with a White House that isn’t always on the same page, and it’s clear Reid continues to believe that it was the administration’s handling of implementing the health care law that cost them the majority.

Still, heading into the next two years, Reid said he doesn’t believe the White House will undercut him and argues that vetoes will only bolster Obama’s standing.

Democrats will only need to pick up five seats to take back the majority in 2016. Reid has no good reason to allow McConnell to implement any part of his agenda that the Nevada senator thinks is “crazy.”

It went unsaid in the interview, but it is clear that Democrats have worked out a strategy to bottle up Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans. It is also obvious that plenty of Democrats are looking for payback after McConnell gummed up entire Senate and brought it to a halt through an intentional strategy of obstruction.

The president may deal with McConnell directly occasionally, but it is more likely that Republicans already got a taste of what their future holds when the president and liberal members of Congress teamed up to kill a bill that would have given corporations hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks. Sen. Reid negotiated that bill, and hopefully he learned a valuable lesson that it is better to work with the president and liberal members of Congress than to try to cut his own deals.

Harry Reid also mentioned in the same interview that his job would be easier because President Obama has his back. He and the White House plan to work together to make sure the president vetoes aren’t overridden.

Payback is coming. Mitch McConnell made the Senate a miserable place for years, and now he is about to get a taste of his own medicine compliments of angry Senate Democrats and President Obama.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association