Posted on 10/19/2011 8:58:45 AM PDT by jazusamo
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders.
"It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor.
Reid was responding to recent comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who accused Democrats of purposefully pursuing higher taxes as part of the teacher/first-responder bill, S. 1723, so that Republicans would oppose it. McConnell said the bill was meant to fail in order to give Democrats an issue to run on in the 2012 election, but Reid said the Republicans are simply trying to defeat President Obama any way they can.
The legislation Reid is defending is part of Obama's jobs package. Vice President Biden was in Pennsylvania, an important election state, on Tuesday to push for the administration's plan on increasing the number of teachers.
Reid reiterated his emphasis on creating government jobs by saying Democrats are looking to "put hundreds of thousands of people back to work teaching children, have more police patrolling our streets, firefighters fighting our fires, doing the rescue work that they do so well … that's our priority." He said Republicans are calling the bill a "failure" because they are "using a different benchmark for success than we are."
Private-sector jobs have increased over the last 19 months, while government jobs have lagged. They've also seen cuts in several states that are struggling to balanced their books.
Reid also said a majority of people polled support the bill, and that the tax hike needed to fund the $35 billion spending program is minimal.
"My friend, the Republican leader … is complaining about a tax of one-half of 1 percent … on people who make more than $1 million a year to pay for a program that would stop teachers from being laid off and rehire some of the teachers that have been laid off," Reid said.
Democrats who support the bill have said it would help save 400,000 teacher jobs and thousands of first-responder jobs that have either been cut or could soon be cut. Reid said Wednesday that these layoffs are "rooted in the last administration," but did not explain further.
Senate Democrats are hoping to pass S. 1723 as early as this week, although votes could be delayed until early November, depending on the progress made on passing a 2012 spending bill.
Reid also dismissed efforts by the Republican House to ease environmental regulations as a way to create jobs.
"The Republican response has been cutting back environmental health safeguards, I guess hoping that a sicker, more polluted country is a better place to create jobs, and it's not," Reid said.
It’s called the Wellstone Principle.
“Reid says government jobs must take priority over private-sector jobs”
Jobs that do not create tax revenue. This doddering old fool needs to retire.
It’s a very Communist principle.
No one is to be able to attain a livelihood except through “the party”, ie, the government under communist control.
Again.
and again.
I’m confident he knows he’s lying through his teeth.
Unbelievable. If the Pubbies don't put this in multiple commercials and blast it from the rooftops, they just have no spine. Oh wait, we knew that.
Read it, folks. What's the "legislation all about"?
Separately, this scum would clearly sell his mother if he needed money for a cup of coffee.
Government of The Government, By The Government, and For The Government............Lincoln must be spinning in his grave...........
Nevada should be kicked out of the Union for re-electing this bufoon. Let Guam or Puerto Rico in so we don't have to buy new flags.
Effin’ communist!
My uncle fought in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam against people like Reid. Are the people in Nevada THAT stupid to keep electing someone like this?
“...This doddering old fool needs to retire.”
Change “retire” to “suffer a humiliating, long suffering death, followed by a grave burning.”
This guy is the epitome of a liberal...senile, stupid, and couldn’t ever hold a real job.
The Obama Jobs plan funds government jobs for one year. After that the grant money runs out and the states are left to come up with the money to keep the teachers and first responders employed. This insures that there will be a new crisis within two months of the 2012 elections. It’s all a political game designed to get Obama reelected - not solve the crisis that they insist on prolonging.
Doesn’t say much for the majority of the Nevada voters
in the last election, LOL
Sometimes when I see what Reid says I think ether Scott Ott or John Semmens is writing his speeches. Reid is his own satirist.
There, fixed it.
Is Reid secretly working for the republicans? This is the sort of sound bite that writes it’s own campaign commercial. Imagine playing this a dozen times a day starting in October 2012.
There are millions fewer private sector employees now.
We are in the economic mess we are in because the public sector is given priority over the private sector. It is a easy campaign fund money stream from the unions.
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