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. It’s got the [methyl tertiary-butyl ether] provision out of it. It’s got the nuclear stuff that’s 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 can’t imagine why it wouldn’t pass.
ROLL CALL: OK, let’s 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 he’s 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 nation’s transportation infrastructure, will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, support our economic development in new communities.”
That’s from Bill Frist, that’s not from me.
ROLL CALL: And you on your own, you say?
REID: I think it’s a tremendously important bill. That’s 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 doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The fact of the matter is that this does not create a deficit. It’s 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 don’t constitute gimmicks?
REID: I don’t see why anyone would say it’s a gimmick. Everything is paid for. So I think that is also part of the cheerleading for Bush. He’s trying to do something. He’s created this tremendously difficult economic situation we have with his failed economic policies and I think now he’s trying to say: “Please let me have something that I can show I’m trying to get the balance into the budget.” No, it’s not a gimmick. The only gimmicks are those saying it’s a deficit spending problem.
ROLL CALL: Is there a significant difference between $318 billion, the Senate number, and Bush’s $256 billion?
REID: Is there a difference? Of course, you’ve got about $62 billion or whatever the number is. That’s how much it is. Which is probably, I don’t know how many, I mean, it’s 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 it’s not your domain.
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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
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