Reid Is Still An Ineffective Leader

It has become obvious that the Republicans really don't care that our country is in a deep recession and sliding fast toward a depression -- the likes of which this country hasn't seen since the 1930s. They have ignored the opinions of almost all respected economists, who are saying we must act fast to stimulate the economy or face disaster.

But they don't want a real stimulus plan. They just keep screaming for tax cuts, and they don't mean tax cuts for working people -- those have already been proposed by the Democrats. No, that's not good enough. They want more tax cuts for their rich buddies. They're still parroting the Bush administration policy, which says if you just give rich people lots of extra money they'll share it with the rest of us.

It's just not true. During the Bush administration, the rich took their big tax cuts, stuffed it into their bank accounts and immediately began asking for more (which the Republicans are willing to give them).

It's not the rich that need help. They have more money than ever before. It's the middle, working and poor classes that need help -- and that's who the Democratic Stimulus Bill is designed to help. The bill not only cuts taxes for all of these groups, but pumps billions of dollars into the economy that will create new jobs and stave off further job losses.

But these aren't the people the Republicans are interested in helping. When the bill passed in the House of Representatives, it did so without a single Republican vote. Then it went to the Senate, and once again, it looked like every single Republican was opposed, and they threatened to block the bill with a filibuster. What was poor old Harry Reid to do?

Reid could have stood up to the Republicans, and told them to go ahead and filibuster the bill. The majority of Americans know that something must be done, and done quickly. It wouldn't have taken long for the Republicans to be seen for the obstructionists that they really are, and public pressure would have seen to it that enough of them came to their senses to stop the filibuster and let the bill pass.

But that would have required a backbone and some political courage, and Reid doesn't have either one. So he wrung his hands and acted helpless, until a "blue dog" Democrat, a turncoat independent and three Republicans came to his rescue.

Senator Nelson (D), Senator Lieberman (I), Senator Collins (R), Senator Specter (R) and Senator Snowe (R) got together, took out their knifes and hacked away at the Stimulus Bill. They claimed they had only cut those things that wouldn't create or save jobs, and now the bill was worthy of passage. That's a bunch of crap!

Look at some of the things they cut:

$122 million for Coast Guard icebreakers/cutters -- A reasonable person would think building new ships would require some jobs.

$16 billion for school construction -- Can this really be done without workers?

$3.5 billion for higher education construction -- again, I guess they think this will be done magically, and won't need workers filling actual jobs.

Frankly, the only things these cuts accomplished is get rid of some badly-needed things, and give the three Republicans a little coverage with their party, so they could go ahead and vote like their constituents already wanted them to vote. If Reid had any leadership skills, he could have gotten the bill passed without the cuts.

When are Senate Democrats going to come to their senses and replace Harry Reid as Majority Leader?