Now that the federal government shutdown is underway, a new report late Monday surfaced that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stopped President Obama from sitting down and speaking with House Republicans, ahead of the government shutdown according to Guy Benson of Townhall.com.
The original report was filed by Politico in which it said, “When the president considered sitting down with the four congressional leaders in the White House ahead of the deadline to avert a government shutdown, Reid privately urged Obama to call off the meeting, according to several people familiar with the situation. Reid believed that it would amount to nothing more than a photo-op that would give the false impression that a serious negotiation was occurring, even warning he would not attend such a session. Obama scrapped it.”
So why did Reid step in and stop Obama from working on a deal with House Republicans?
Politico said, “Reid and top Democrats were infuriated by the White House’s handling of the fiscal cliff fight that led to a New Year’s Eve 2012 deal between Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In late 2010, when the White House cut a deal with Senate Republicans to extend Bush-era tax cuts for two years, Democrats were also furious. And in 2011, Democrats feared Obama would cut a grand-bargain deal with Boehner that would slash too deeply into entitlement programs they have vowed to protect.”
While the Democrats blame the House Republicans for the government shutdown, the report coincides with a related news report on Monday by the Paulding County Republican Examiner that Reid obstructed negotiations and would not meet with Republicans in which Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, “Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had the opportunity this afternoon to avert a government shutdown.”
“Instead, he chose to kill the House’s bill to keep government open, a deliberate act to move towards a government shutdown. This is no surprise.”
While President Obama spoke at a press conference on Tuesday that the government shutdown was the result of the Republicans in House, it was Reid, who also is blaming House Republicans, who blocked Obama from working out a deal to avoid the shutdown.
