Harry Reid’s Final Act as Majority Leader: Caving to Fight Against Obama’s Executive Amnesty by Matthew Boyle
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Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s final act as the most powerful person in the U.S. Senate chamber is one where he has relented to the Tea Party.
Reid’s Senate Democrats lost nine seats in the midterm elections—more than even the most generous prognosticators were expected—giving the GOP control over the U.S. Senate come January. And on Saturday evening, as his chamber readies the so-called “CRomnibus” spending bill for package, Reid has agreed to allow a vote on a measure from Sen.
Read MoreSmash-Mouth Reid
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He has taken the initiative from Obama, who played the principal role in the 2011 debt-limit talks and New Year’s fiscal cliff deal. Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are relieved by the switch.
The majority leader has brought a more pugnacious style to the debate, bashing House conservatives as “anarchists” and mocking the “Banana Republican mindset.” This is a welcome change for Democrats who thought Obama was too accommodating to Republicans during previous crises.
Read MoreWho Gets Credit for a Government Shutdown?
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The End is Nigh. So say the media, counting down the seconds to a partial shutdown of the U.S. government. Certainly Americans will miss some federal functions, and the media will focus eagerly on victims–real and imaginary–of the impasse (though, curiously, the government clocks out for two days every weekend, and most people seem OK with that). At the same time, we will be reminded that life goes on beyond the state.
The enduring memory of the last shutdown, in 1996, is that the economy hummed right along despite the fact that the federal government was closed. Suddenly, much of government didn’t seem so necessary after all. The American people proved quite adept at handling our own affairs in most matters. It was before–not after–that shutdown that President Bill Clinton told the nation that “the era of big government is over.”
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