Free Republic

It’s one of the clearest, easiest-to-understand provisions in the Constitution. And Harry Reid’s Senate flouts it routinely. The Origination Clause in Article I, Section 7 states: “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.” In addition to clarity, this provision has an even greater virtue: It serves a very good purpose. The Founding Fathers required revenue measures to originate in the House because they wanted this authority to belong to the legislative body closest to the people. Plus, the framers wanted the larger...

<p>Victorville, Calif. (AP) -- On a dusty, rock-strewn expanse at the edge of the Mojave Desert, a company linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to build a bullet train that would rocket tourists from the middle of nowhere to the gambling palaces of Las Vegas.</p>

Taxes: The Senate hasn't passed a budget in over a thousand days, yet it has time to consider one member's bill to make the no-growth logic of the administration's favorite billionaire the law of the land. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat from the state ranking among the highest in foreclosures and unemployment, would prefer leaving the ship of state to drift rudderlessly. "We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year — it's done, we don't need to do it," Reid told reporters Friday. Reid's idea of getting things done is punting to a supercommittee...

BOSTON -- A Peabody woman says a cupcake she tried to take on a flight with her sparked a potential security threat this week. Rebecca Hains says she was going through security at the airport in Las Vegas when a TSA agent pulled her aside and said the cupcake frosting was “gel-like” enough to constitute a security risk. She said she was able to pass through Logan International Airport security with two cupcakes, but she was stopped on the way back when she tried to return with one of them.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the failure of the House to approve the bipartisan Senate bill to extend the payroll-tax cut is “harming the Republican Party.” Speaking Tuesday on CNN’s “Situation Room,” McCain said that while it’s inevitable that the tax cut will ultimately be extended, the infighting reflects poorly on Republicans and Congress as a whole. (snip) McCain was one of 89 senators who overwhelmingly voted to extend the payroll-tax cut through February to give the sides more time to come to an agreement on how to pay for it. House Republicans say that debate should happen now. Some...

Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid today announced he is co-sponsoring a bill by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) to ban law enforcement from using racial profiling in Nevada and around the country. The End Racial Profiling Act of 2011(ERPA) is designed to enforce the constitutional right of equal protection under the law by eliminating the policies and procedures that can lead to racial profiling.“Racial profiling has no place in our law enforcement,” Reid said. “Our law enforcement officials who put their lives on the line every day handle their jobs with professionalism, diligence, and fidelity to the rule of...

This just in from Harry Reid's planet: The Democrat believes, "It's very clear that private sector jobs are doing just fine." This from the five-term senator from Nevada, where current unemployment is 13.4%. Nevada, the state with the nation's highest foreclosure rate. Reid, who turns 72 in a few weeks, was speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate Wednesday. He was talking about President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill. Oh, no, wait, the Democrat-controlled Senate shot down the Democratic president's jobs bill that was so urgent it had to await the end of POTUS' island vacation for presentation to...

Confirming that one has to be a billionaire or at least a multi-millionaire to be an applicant for the Tax Czar position under the Teleprompted Wealth Readjuster, is the latest sheer class warfare idiocy out of tax expert du jour Harry Reid, who has proposed an overhaul of the Obama tax bill with one in which millionaires end up paying a 5% surtax. National Journal reports: "Senate Democrats will replace tax increases proposed by President Obama to pay for his $445 billion jobs bill with a more politically popular tax increase on millionaires, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said...

On Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered the so-called nuclear option — unilaterally changing Senate rules by a simple majority vote to stop the minority from forcing votes on uncomfortable amendments. It’s the same tactic the majority would use to undercut the minority’s ability to filibuster. And that’s why it’s called “nuclear” — it dramatically alters the balance of power between the majority and minority. It is not a step to be taken lightly. What great matter drove Reid to push the nuclear button? Apparently Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was threatening to force a vote on...

In a shock development Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered a rarely-used procedural option informally called the “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules. The surprise move stunned Republicans, who did not expect Reid to bring heavy artillery to what had appeared to have been a hum-drum legislative knife fight. Reid appealed a ruling from the chair that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) does not need consent to force a vote on a motion to suspend the rules to consider an amendment after cloture has already been approved. The maneuver is highly arcane but momentous. If...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that it would be "short-sighted" to abandon high speed rail ambitions in California, even as Democratic lawmakers here show signs of concern over the multi-billion dollar project. On Tuesday, some of the project's supporters expressed reservations after seeing an environmental report estimating that the first segment of the rail line could cost between $3 billion and $6 billion more than expected.

Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid made the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the only viable debt ceiling compromise to avert a default. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:Republicans leaders in the House of Representatives wasted this week pursuing a right-wing proposal they knew from the start could not pass the Senate.From the very beginning the Speaker’s Band-Aid approach was fatally flawed – it would have put us back in this incredible position, fighting the clock to prevent financial collapse, in just a few weeks.It was a concession to Tea Party extremists, yet it...

While Democrats rip into oil and gas companies for failing to pay their "fair share" because of tax breaks Congress gave them, another special interest break they're not talking about is the billions of dollars worth of gold, silver, uranium and other minerals that mining companies take off federal lands for which they pay nothing. "They don't pay a dime, not a penny for the gold and uranium they remove from public lands," says Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense. In 1993, the House passed a bill imposing an 8 percent royalty, but Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., helped kill...

In a notable victory for the freedom of speech, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled that Detroit's SMART bus system must run my religious liberty bus ads offering help to people wishing to leave Islam safely, without having to live in fear. This victory has been a long time coming. SMART initially refused to run my ads back in the spring of 2010. Despite the desperate need for resources for Muslims under threat for leaving Islam, the city of Detroit refused to run our freedom campaign on the Dearborn and Detroit buses. In May of that year, my...

Nuclear Power: The greatest danger at Fukushima was and is the spent fuel stored at the reactor sites. So why are we doing the same thing when we have a safe place to store it? Before a 9.0 axis-shifting earthquake damaged the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Japan, legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives endorsing the construction of 200 nuclear power reactors in the U.S. by 2040, tripling current megawatt generating capacity. H.R. 909, co-sponsored by 64 Republicans, also endorsed the completion of the spent fuel storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. That facility, which was supposed to...

..Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who had come to the floor to congratulate athletes currently competing in the Iditarod Dog Race in Alaska, prompted the majority leader to speak on the topic. After listening to Murkowski and asking a couple of questions, Reid explained that he had heard a piece about dog racing on NPR. “They had a really, really good piece on public radio before the start of the race,” explained Reid. "I hesitate saying this because I know I will probably get in trouble, but this is a good reason why the House vote was bad today to defund...

Budget Cuts: You know we're in trouble when the Senate majority leader says dealing with a $14 trillion debt might mean the end of cowboy poetry readings in northern Nevada. When Harry Reid proposed that Nevada make prostitution illegal everywhere in his state, little did we know his backup plan for stimulating the Nevada economy was continued federal funding of cowboy poetry readings in northern Nevada. Exhibiting the kind of leadership that's quickly becoming a national embarrassment, and that begs for a Republican takeover of the Senate in 2012, Reid took to the floor to lament that Republicans, through a...

Oh, the tragedy! Because of those evil budget-cutting Republicans we are now facing the loss of that great cultural landmark, the Cowboy Poetry Festival. Thank you Senator Harry Reid for exposing this nefarious act with your bold attack upon the Republicans: The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1,, eliminates National Public Broadcasting...It eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts. These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) once again attacked Republicans’ budget proposal on Wednesday, claiming its cuts target “little children” and “poor little boys and girls.” He added that the spending bill, which will face a vote in the Senate later on Wednesday afternoon, is “insulting” to the American people. “H.R. 1 is a mean-spirited bill that would cut the heart out of the recovery that we have in America today,” said Reid. “It goes after little children, poor little boys and girls ... we want them to learn to read.”

(CNSNews.com) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today accused congressional Republicans of being fixated on destroying the U.S. government and economy. At a Capitol Hill Press conference to announce that the Senate had agreed to a continuing resolution that will keep the government funded through March 18th, Reid was asked about GOP plans to eliminate the Home Affordable Modification Program--a program that has permanently modified nearly 600,000 loans since its inception. “Why can’t they work on things that help the economy?” Reid asked. “Why do they have to work on things that hurt the economy? Why would they...

(CARSON CITY — Sen. Harry Reid on Tuesday called for “an adult conversation” about prostitution in Nevada, saying it is an impediment to economic development because it discourages businesses from moving here. “Nevada needs to be known as the first place for innovation and investment – not as the last place where prostitution is still legal,” he said in a speech to the Nevada Legislature. Reid told the assembled lawmakers that he met recently with a group of business leaders who run data centers for technology companies. They visited Storey County in search of a new location for their businesses...

Leadership: Waking up to a thinner majority, the Senate majority leader suddenly finds the filibuster a threat to democracy. So he decides that the first legislative day will be the day the Senate stood still. Only in the Bible and Harry Reid's Senate can a day last more than 24 hours. As we predicted a week ago, the slightly less powerful majority leader, on the first legislative day in the 112th Congress, executed plans to make that "day" last until Jan. 25 so he can stage a legislative coup and neuter the filibuster rule that protects the right of the...

Health Reform: A date's been set for the attempted repeal of the greatest federal control of our lives, and even our deaths, perhaps ever. Senate Democrats say over their dead political bodies. Game on. You could call this GOP Congress a death panel for Obama-Care itself. The decision to pull the political plug has been made and the date is set. The text of the repeal bill is already online, at rules-republicans.house.gov. Putting key bills online before they were voted on is something President Obama and the Democrats promised but never did. The attempt may be futile — the Democrats...

Politics: The Senate Majority Leader has a plan to deal with Republican electoral success. When you lose the game, you simply change the rules. When you only have 53 votes, you lower the bar to 51. When Harry Reid was hawking his book "The Good Fight" on C-Span's "Book Notes" in 2008, he described how he had vehemently opposed GOP plans for the "nuclear option," changing the rules to break a Democratic filibuster on President George W. Bush's judicial nominees. Only 51 votes would be needed to move them along. "What the Republicans came up with was a way to...

Budget: The lump of coal in our Christmas stocking that was the omnibus spending bill is dead. The Congress the people elected, not the one they repudiated, can now guard the public purse, not pick our pockets. The failure to pass a budget or any of 12 appropriations bills despite full control of both houses of Congress led to this paroxysm of spending, a $1.27 trillion bill full of earmarks that represented the antithesis to the type of government voters on Nov. 2 said they wanted. Those voices evidently were still being heard, particularly by the 23 Democratic and independent...

Subsidies: As with the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase, the majority leader of the Senate seeks to buy votes for a bill, this time the tax-cut compromise with support for ethanol credits for the rich. With the tax-cut compromise having made it through the Senate, the Democrats have once again reminded us why the voters threw a good portion of the rascals out in 2010. They continue to act as if the populist revolt against tax-and-spend big government never happened. To sweeten the deal made between President Obama and Republicans regarding extending all the decade-old Bush tax rates, including...

It’s the least he can do. After all, he owes his win over Sharron Angle to Latinos, no? Actually … no. As Kaus notes, his margin of victory was such that he would have won by 7,000 votes even if every last Latino voter in his base had stayed home. So this is actually something else — part pre-2012 pandering for Obama, part last-ditch effort to legalize millions of new Democratic voters before the new Republican House makes that impossible for the foreseeable future. *** During his re-election campaign in Nevada, Mr. Reid said he would try again to pass...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday it is not clear whether he will schedule a lame-duck vote on Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) bill that would block looming Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas rules for two years. Reid earlier this year pledged to Rockefeller that he would bring up the measure. But the Nevada senator told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday that it’s unclear if there’s enough time in the lame-duck session. “We are at a critical time here. It is real hard just to say ‘yeah, we can do this,’ because we have limited time to go through...

Power Politics: The Aztec calendar forecasts doom in two years. Looming on the election calendar is the possibility of a second wave that will end the Democrats' world as they know it for a long time. Analysis of last Tuesday's results shows just how big the GOP wave was. Republicans took control of at least 19 legislative bodies, giving them control of both chambers in at least 26 states. After the 2010 census, the party will play a dominant role in redrawing some 314 congressional districts. Republicans won 16 of 30 races for state attorney general, taking five away from...

<p>Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he feels "comfortable" about his re-election prospects a week before Nevada voters decide between him and his tea party-backed Republican challenger Sharron Angle.</p> <p>The Nevada Democrat also suggested after a labor rally in Reno Tuesday night the race may not end up as close as many expect.</p>

Mr. Reid discussed his bid for a fifth term at the Gritz Café in Las Vegas. Below is a condensed, edited version of their conversation. Q. You’re in the fight of your life. How come? A. No state was hit like we have been hit. If we hadn’t worked so hard, there’d be a worldwide depression. Q. Do you think your Republican opponent Sharron Angle is crazy? A. Other people have said so, but I’m not going to say that. Q. Do you look back at specific things that you, this administration and fellow Democrats have done wrong, that you...

Election '10: Megalomania and chutzpah has been redefined with the Senate majority leader's assertion that without him we'd be in worldwide depression. Unfortunately, he couldn't save his home state of Nevada.

LAS VEGAS – A Republican campaign urging Latinos not to vote was yanked from the airwaves Tuesday amid an outcry from Democrats that it was a dirty trick against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his hotly contested race against Republican Sharron Angle. Reid sought to link the ad to Angle as the ad drew a harsh rebuke from President Barack Obama, Hispanic leaders and candidates from both parties in Nevada. Angle's opponents also pounced on the tea party favorite for her comments to Hispanic high school students that "some of you look a little more Asian to me."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has compared President Barack Obama to a trapped Chilean miner. In a speech to supporters in Las Vegas on Sunday night, Reid said that when Obama replaced George W. Bush in the White House he found himself in a "hole so deep that he couldn't see the outside world. "It was like the Chilean miners, but he, being the man he is, rolled up his sleeves and said 'I am going to get us out of this hole,'" Reid said at an "Early Vote GOTV" event. At a Democratic rally in Boston on Saturday, Obama...

Election '10: The future debated the past in Nevada on Thursday night, with the Tea Party's Sharron Angle demonstrating why the Democrats will no longer be the majority and Harry Reid will no longer be their leader. It was no easy task for Sen. Harry Reid to stand up there and try to explain why he deserved re-election as senator from a state with 14% unemployment and a foreclosure rate five times the national average. If the policies of an administration whose legislation he quarterbacked through the Senate were working, it is certainly not evident in Nevada. This time around,...

Pay-to-play, in what was promised to be the "most ethical Congress evah." The 527 Harry Reid Votes will shortly file an ethics complaint against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. The complaint alleges that Reid violated “the Senate Rules of Conduct by accepting certain contributions from the top executives of a federal government contractor,” according to a draft of the letter to be sent to the Select Committee on Ethics. At issue is over $100,000 of campaign contributions made by Nevada defense contractor Arcata Associates to both Reid and the Nevada Democrat Party. The small Nevada defense firm recently...

Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, regarded as the most powerful and respected Republican in Nevada, announced Thursday he will support Democrat Harry Reid over Sharron Angle in the closely contested U.S. Senate race. In an open letter, Raggio slammed Angle's legislative record and what he referred to as her extreme positions on the issues. He also mentioned Angle's negative campaign against him for the Nevada Senate seat saying she distorted his record, calling him a liar and a RINO (Republican In Name Only.) “I never heard one word from her, or a concession, or an offer of support,” he wrote. “Instead,...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has returned to the state for a final campaign push in which he will attempt to persuade Nevadans to return him to office by not only scaring voters away from his opponent but also giving them a list of reasons to support him. “Part of my constitutional duty is to do congressionally directed spending,” he said, pulling out a copy of the Constitution. “I am vigorous in going forward with congressionally directed spending. I fight for it.” It’s a difficult argument to make to an electorate that polls indicate is deeply concerned about federal spending.

Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement after Republicans blocked a cloture motion that would have opened debate on the Defense Authorization bill funding critical assistance for our troops: “Republicans are again playing politics with our national security.  Today they blocked the Senate from debating a bill that would give our troops the resources they need to keep America safe – stopping not only funding for combat vehicles and bulletproof vests or measures to improve our military’s readiness, but even a well-earned pay raise to help our troops and their families make ends meet.   “I am disappointed...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had an unusual form of praise for New York's junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, this morning at the fundraiser Mayor Bloomberg hosted for him at his townhouse - referring to her as "the hottest member" as she sat just a few feet away, according to three sources. The comment prompted Gillibrand to turn red, according to the sources, and created a bit of stir among the small crowd there. "It was pretty shocking when he said it," said one source familiar with the remark and the reaction. A Reid spokesman confirmed it happened, but also noted...

Voters now know a thing or two about Harry Reid's type -- the Senate majority leader, speaking at a fundraiser Monday, reportedly called New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand "the hottest member," in front of a crowd that included the blond mother of two. Politico.com reported that the remark caused Gillibrand to blush and surprised those in the audience. Reid apparently was explaining that senators are known for "many things," but that Gillibrand has a reputation as a Capitol Hill hottie. ...

Reid called the DREAM Act "really important" and said it should be passed because it provides a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military.

While campaigning in Nevada Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told an audience of mostly Hispanic voters: 'I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay. Do I need to say more?'" Like most politicians Harry Reid tends to be long-winded, belaboring a point until half his audience is asleep and the other half is silently cursing him. But on the subject of Hispanics and the Republican party Sen. Reid was cogent and concise. Hispanics, especially those living in Arizona, don't need to hear a long speech to convince them that they shouldn't belong to the...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WjaddBoTgI

Energy Policy: Senate Democrats have shelved job-killing cap-and-trade legislation, at least for now. Neither the political nor the Earth's climate suggests it's a good time to try to fool Mother Nature or the American people. After a Thursday meeting with Senate Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has apparently dropped plans to pursue cap-and-trade before the August recess. He doesn't have the votes to overcome a GOP filibuster, and saving the earth from a phantom threat stands way below jobs on Americans' wish list. But watch out after November. "What he suggested is that we move forward on several bills...

(July 16) -- According to the latest polls, embattled Nevada incumbent Democratic Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid is now leading Republican challenger Sharron Angle, 44 to 37 percent. In last month's poll, Angle was ahead three percentage points. Reid's seat has long looked vulnerable in this purple state, which has the country's highest unemployment rate -- 14 percent. The majority leader is the local face of the Obama administration, and even though Obama took Nevada in the 2008 presidential election, his popularity there has declined. For Republican's eyeing big wins in the mid-term elections, winning Reid's seat would be the...

It's an open secret that Sharron Angle, the GOP's new nominee against Sen. Harry Reid (R-Nev.), is being encouraged to shake up her tiny, grassroots campaign. Republicans just can't afford to be too obvious about it -- a top National Republican Senate Committee staffer parachuting in to retool Angle's strategy would give the game away. So the first retooling came on Angle's website, which, pre-primary, was stuffed with policy positions rich with material for attack ads. On Wednesday, that site was gone, replaced with a new site designed, as Rachel Maddow's staff discovered, by The Prosper Group Corporation, which worked...

Sharron Angle, following her come-from-behind Republican Primary win Tuesday, has bounced to an 11-point lead over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada’s closely-watched U.S. Senate race. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Nevada, taken Wednesday night, shows Angle earning 50% support while Reid picks up 39% of the vote. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided. A month ago, Angle led Reid 48% to 40% but ran poorest against the incumbent of the three GOP primary hopefuls as she has for months. Reid will try to portray Angle, a...

Senator Harry Reid may be having a lot of bad dreams lately as it appears that the voters of Nevada don't like him much anymore.