Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) today unloaded on the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act recently passed by the House of Representatives. While announcing that the Senate would be voting on the legislation Friday rather than Saturday (as previously expected), Reid excoriated the bill:
“If they [Senate Republicans] want to debate it tomorrow for a period of time, they can do that, but I’m going to — I think this piece of legislation is about as weak and senseless as anything that has ever come on this Senate floor … The American people should understand that this is a bad piece of legislation. Perhaps some of the worst legislation in the history of this country.”
But for the “worst legislation in the history of this country,” as Reid described it, the bill is pretty darn popular. Conn Carroll at The Washington Examiner notes that a CNN poll shows 66% of Americans would support a debt reduction plan similar to Cut, Cap and Balance. And Townhall.com’s Guy Benson writes that those numbers show much more support than Obamacare currently enjoys. (A new Rasmussen poll this week found that a full 54% of Americans support repealing that legislation.)
Then again, we shouldn’t be that surprised. Senator Reid is prone to extreme exaggeration whenever his big government agenda is threatened. Earlier this year, he railed against the House plan to cut $61 billion:
Reid said the bill cutting $61 billion in spending this year is one of the worst ever drafted.
…
“This will go down in history as probably one of the worst pieces of legislation that we’ve drafted in the history of this Congress.” Reid said in a floor speech.
Despite this hysteria, Gallup noted at the time that a “plurality of Americans, 37% … say Republicans’ proposals in Congress don’t go far enough.” Noticing a pattern? In Reid’s rhetoric, popular pieces of legislation designed to slow government’s growth are the worst bills in the history of the Republic. Unpopular, big government spending programs? Crickets.
All this is just serves to highlight the critical importance of this current fight. Dr. Feulner wrote in today’s Morning Bell, “We find ourselves in the midst of an important battle, the outcome of which will be determined by decisions to be made in the immediate days ahead. We must win this fight.”