Q&A: A Call to Action
Senate Minority Whip Foresees Revamped Energy, Highway Bills Passing
ROLL CALL EXECUTIVE EDITOR MORTON KONDRACKE: How do you rate the chances of passing both the transportation and an energy bill this year?
SENATE MINORITY WHIP HARRY REID: I think that with the slimmed-down energy bill, the chances of that passing are pretty good. Its got the [methyl tertiary-butyl ether] provision out of it. Its got the nuclear stuff thats not pronounced as it was, so I think the chances that it passes are pretty good. The highway bill, unless the [House] Republican leadership have lost all direction, I cant imagine why it wouldnt pass.
ROLL CALL: OK, lets start with the transportation bill. The president says he is going to veto. Do you think he means it?
REID: As I said on the Senate floor more than once, I dare him to veto it. With the job situation as it is nearly 9 million people unemployed the only president since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of private sector jobs, almost 3 million, and here is the first real jobs bill that hes had. ... [Senate Majority Leader] Bill Frist [R-Tenn.] sent me a long BlackBerry message about what a great thing it is to pass this highway bill. I mean, [the e-mail is] just long: historic level of investment in our nations transportation infrastructure, will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, support our economic development in new communities.
Thats from Bill Frist, thats not from me.
ROLL CALL: And you on your own, you say?
REID: I think its a tremendously important bill. Thats why I worked so hard to get it done.
ROLL CALL: Democrats are charging that the president has got a $500 billion deficit and yet you want to spend up to the max on highways. Is there not a conflict there?
REID: Whoever is spewing this doesnt know what theyre talking about. The fact of the matter is that this does not create a deficit. Its paid for out of the highway trust fund and with taxes that are already in place. The Finance [Committee] came up with a package of no new taxes, but just rearranging some that are directed at the highway fund. This does not add to the deficit one penny.
ROLL CALL: The methods of financing dont constitute gimmicks?
REID: I dont see why anyone would say its a gimmick. Everything is paid for. So I think that is also part of the cheerleading for Bush. Hes trying to do something. Hes created this tremendously difficult economic situation we have with his failed economic policies and I think now hes trying to say: Please let me have something that I can show Im trying to get the balance into the budget. No, its not a gimmick. The only gimmicks are those saying its a deficit spending problem.
ROLL CALL: Is there a significant difference between $318 billion, the Senate number, and Bushs $256 billion?
REID: Is there a difference? Of course, youve got about $62 billion or whatever the number is. Thats how much it is. Which is probably, I dont know how many, I mean, its millions of jobs.
ROLL CALL: Does it look to you as though the House will be able to pass a bill at all? I know its not your domain.
Potts: Congress Must Not Allow Lobbying Efforts to Block Pro-Consumer Financial Planning Bill
March 18, 12:35 p.m.
Quietly hidden amid debates over which agency should house a consumer financial protection agency is a simple consumer financial protection proposal. It would safeguard Main Street residents from malpractice by people claiming to be financial planners. Read Full Article











