So whose fault is the recent downgrade? Is it the Tea Party’s as spin masters David Axelrod and John Kerry are expounding? Or is it that crazy old coot in the Senate who was recently waxing poetic about his pomegranate trees or some damn thing?
Reuters outlines how Reid’s political posturing back in December of last year prevented the timely address of the debt ceiling problem:
The reason we’re hitting the debt ceiling, remember, is that the budget passed by both Republicans and Democrats forces us to do so. As a result, the obvious time and place to raise the debt ceiling is when you pass the budget. This isn’t just obvious now, it was obvious then. And the person who thought it was a bad idea? Harry Reid.
Ol’ Harry expressed that very thought back in 2010:
Reid also said that he would like to push off raising the debt ceiling until next year — when Republicans control the House, but that he has not discussed the matter yet with his caucus.
“Let the Republicans have some buy-in on the debt. They’re going to have a majority in the House,” said Reid. “I don’t think it should be when we have a heavily Democratic Senate, heavily Democratic House and a Democratic president.”
Keep in mind, Reid didn’t want the Republicans to join the fun as any kind of gesture of good will or across the aisle ass kissing. No, he simply didn’t want to provide Republicans with another club with which to beat not only Obama, but any other Democrat running for re-election in 2012.
Reuters sums up Reid’s leadership failures as follows:
Forcing a majority-Republican House to vote to raise the debt ceiling might have seemed like a good idea at the time. But it’s not exactly the epitome of leadership. Indeed, it seems to have led the country straight into something which risks being downright catastrophic.
So it seems that President Obama isn’t the only Democrat capably of destroying the economy all by his lonesome. Harry Reid is a close second and coming on strong.
Source: Reuters
