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Harry Reid Archive

Thursday

18

July 2013

0

COMMENTS

Harry Reid’s Filib(l)uster and the NLRB

Written by , Posted in The Courts, Criminal Justice & Tort

The big news yesterday was that Republicans apparently caved on their opposition to several Obama administration appointees, a deal which will stave off Harry Reid’s plan to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” to end filibusters on presidential appointments. There are two things I find of interest in this whole brouhaha – the administration’s abuse of recess appointments to circumvent the Senate’s role to provide Advice and Consent, and the implications should Harry Reid go through with the “nuclear option.”

Here’s what I previously said about President Obama’s “recess” appointments:

What’s interesting to me is how ridiculous is much of the rhetorical justification for the move. The argument I frequently see goes something like this: Republicans blocked Obama’s appointments, therefore he just had to act.

This line of reasoning renders meaningless the entire concept of Advice and Consent. What is the point of even requiring Senate confirmation if the refusal of the Senate to do so just means that the President should go around them? If the Senate is expected to be nothing more than a rubber stamp, then the whole process is a massive waste of time.

The appointments have since been found by multiple courts to be invalid, the most recent of which being the Fourth Circuit in a ruling issued just yesterday afternoon. The Obama administration has insisted they were legitimate appointments, and the issue is now before the Supreme Court in NLRB v. Noel Canning.

The exact fallout from the rulings remains uncertain at least until Noel is decided, due largely to the fact that the legality of rulings issued thanks to Obama’s invalid appointments are in question, though many other challenges are currently proceeding.

Bruce McQuain raises an interesting question regarding how the deal to avoid Harry Reid’s bombing of Senate rules plays into the issue. President Obama and Democrats responded to the rulings against the NLRB by insisting they were legal appointments, yet now are promising two new appointments. McQuain writes:

If the Democrats agreed to have two new appointments made to the NLRB, aren’t they at least tacitly admitting the current two appointments are illegal?  And if so, what does that make any rulings the current NLRB made during that time it was illegally constituted?  Common sense says those rulings should be invalidated, don’t you think?

We’ll see how the issue shakes out with upcoming cases, but it’s worth pointing out that this mess is the direct result of the President’s novel insistence that he knows better than the Senate when they are in session or not.

The other issue of interest regarding the deal is the nature and structure of the Senate itself. Harry Reid has essentially said he and 50 other Senators can change the rules at any time to read as they please. If that is going to be the case, why even bother with rules? Just make it a majority rules, anything goes body and be done with it.

This contrasts with the purpose and understanding of the Senate as constructed. Senators were given longer terms and their elections staggered (not to mentioned originally not even determined by popular vote) in order so that it would serve as a counter-weight to the fickle nature of popular opinion that would hold greater sway in the House of Representatives.

Senator Lamar Alexander did a pretty good job with this argument in yesterday’s Washington Times:

This week’s “nuclear option” debate about whether U.S. senators should be permitted to filibuster presidential nominations was not about filibusters.

It was instead about whether a majority of senators should be able to change the rules of the Senate anytime for any purpose. Former Sen. Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan once offered the precise trouble with this idea: “If a majority of the Senate can change its rules at any time, there are no rules.”

…Over the years, there have been seven sub-Cabinet nominees blocked by filibuster — three Republicans and four Democrats, all since 1994.

…So, what were Democrats complaining about?For many Democrats, getting rid of the filibuster for nominees is the first step in turning the Senate into an institution where the majority rules lock, stock and barrel.

The Senate would become like the House of Representatives, in which a majority of only one vote could establish a Rules Committee with nine members of the majority and four of the minority. Every meaningful decision would be controlled by the majority. The result: The minority, its views and those it represents would become irrelevant.

It would be an unfortunate development if the Senate were to be turned into just a smaller House of Representatives. For those of us that welcome Congressional gridlock as a means to stay the worst impulses of knee-jerk legislators, the role of the Senate is essential. Though it’s worth pointing out that when the power shifts, many on both sides of the debate will switch sides. It may in the future be Lamar Alexander and his colleagues crying foul over minority obstructionism while Harry Reid demands respect for minority party rights. It wouldn’t be the first time.

 

Tuesday

27

November 2012

0

COMMENTS

Harry Reid's Dishonest Filibuster Reform Argument

Written by , Posted in Waste & Government Reform

I try on this blog to criticize the ideas and policies of my adversaries, instead of the people themselves. I don’t always succeed, but that is one of my goals. But for Harry Reid I make an exception and don’t even try. He continues to demonstrate that he is one of the most loathsome people in the DC cesspool, and cares about nothing other than the accumulation of his own power. He runs the Senate like a dictatorship, abusing his authority in ways that do direct harm to political process and the American people. He is a cancer desperately in need of removal from the body politic.

His latest assault on good government is taking place as a crusade against the filibuster. He claims that the problem is his adversaries, who are abusing it to block his agenda. As usual he has twisted reality on its head, as it is Harry Reid who has long abused Senate rules to prevent votes on issues he considers politically dangerous to himself or his party, and who is seeking to solidify his ability to do so going forward. Mark Calabria of Cato explains:

First, let’s remember that the objective of every majority leader is to stay majority leader. To do so means members of his party must win re-election. One of the important ways a majority leader can facilitate such is to protect his members from tough votes. For instance, witness Reid’s current attempts to stop a vote on Rand Paul’s (R-KY) amendment to limit indefinite detention. You’d think that since many liberal voters and groups oppose indefinite detention, Reid would welcome such a vote. But such a vote would put Democrats and President Obama at odds. So Reid’s favored course of action is to avoid such a vote.

How does this relate to the filibuster? Well after cloture is invoked (see Senate Rule XXII), the only amendments that can be voted on are those that are both pending and germane. And an amendment only gets pending if there’s no objection. All Reid needs to do is oppose amendments for 30 hours, then the curtain comes down and he can force a vote, and this assumes he hasn’t already filled the amendment tree (I’ve witnessed such a process too many times to count). So when Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) claims, “[w]e’ve had over 300 filibusters in the last six years,” he fails to mention that few of these were actual filibusters. The vast majority were attempts by the Majority to limit amendments by pre-emptively filing cloture.

He goes on to look at the ratio of roll call votes to measures passed as a proxy for how frequently a Majority Leader uses this obstructionist practice, and lo-and-behold, Harry Reid is worse than the average. Harry Reid does not want filibuster reform to enhance the workers of the Senate, he wants filibuster reform to enhance his iron grip on the legislative agenda and further constrain the ability of anyone not named Harry Reid to have a say.

Saturday

14

July 2012

2

COMMENTS

Does the Left Hate Foreigners?

Written by , Posted in Economics & the Economy

If I took liberal arguments seriously, it would be hard not to conclude that they just don’t like foreign people. They have come completely unhinged over the idea that Romney allowed some dirty foreigners to handle his money. Matt Welch described how this “Swissophobia” harms middle-class Americans, and I similarly called them out in an editorial at the Daily Caller:

In an effort to score political points, Democrats are pounding Mitt Romney over his use of offshore bank accounts. Over the weekend, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin remarked, “You either get a Swiss bank account to conceal what you’re doing, or you believe the Swiss franc is stronger than the American dollar.” DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz recently wondered aloud, “Why does an American businessman need a Swiss bank account and secretive investments like that?” Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley even called Romney’s Swiss bank account a “bet against America.” These attacks reek of populist nonsense tinged with more than a little economic xenophobia.

Harry Reid similarly called on the US Olympic committee to burn the Team USA uniforms because they were made by filthy Chinese fingers. Senate xenophones have even introduced legislation that would prohibit US athletes in future Olympics from wearing contaminated foreign made uniforms (even though they are purchased with private dollars, and thus none of their business). So do Democrats just hate foreigners? Do they not care about the welfare of anyone who’s not a US citizen?

Probably not, since I know better than to take their arguments seriously. After all, many of the same folks condemning Romney have similar investments. In reality, they are just displaying (or preying upon) economic ignorance. They don’t understand the globalized economy, nor the benefits of trade.

Sadly, the left is not the only side guilty of this. Populists on the right, like the ignoramus Donald Trump,  also sometimes prey on such ignorance and similarly distrust free trade. The central fallacy of this fear of foreign competition is the belief that economics is a zero sum game. It’s not, and because of the benefits of specialization, trade can and does make all parties more prosperous. Don Boudreaux put it better than I can:

Mr. Reid’s outburst reveals his ignorance of a foundational conclusion of economic science, namely, that people are enriched when they’re free to purchase from whomever they choose regardless of political boundaries.  …[E] economists’ overwhelming, non-partisan, and research-based consensus today is, as it has been for years, that free trade (even when unilateral) is beneficial.  Mr. Reid’s temper tantrum proves that he is either inexcusably dimwitted about matters on which he legislates, or interested, not in science and realism and truth, but in scoring political points by appealing to the uninformed emotions of constituents.

If people could be made more prosperous by limiting trade across political boundaries, why not prohibit interstate trade? Do the citizens of Texas lose out when they buy from Florida? Would the people of New Jersey be more wealthy if they quit trading with New York? Of course not, and anyone who suggested such would be laughed out of office. So why aren’t Reid and the other trade deniers?

Thursday

6

October 2011

1

COMMENTS

Reid Goes Nuclear On Obama's Jobs Bill

Written by , Posted in Economics & the Economy

Reid launches the nukes at Senate Republicans:

In a shocking 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.

Reid and 50 members of his caucus voted to change Senate rules unilaterally to prevent Republicans from forcing votes on uncomfortable amendments…

And what were these uncomfortable amendments, exactly? Oh, it was the jobs bill Obama has been petulantly demanding be passed right away:

McConnell had threatened … to force a vote on the original version of President Obama’s jobs package, which many Democrats don’t like because it would limit tax deductions for families earning over $250,000.

When will Obama declare, “pass this jobs bill, Mr. Reid”?

Tuesday

8

February 2011

0

COMMENTS

Sunday

28

February 2010

0

COMMENTS

Tuesday

12

January 2010

1

COMMENTS

Use Caution In Chastising Reid

Written by , Posted in Identity Politics

Harry Reid is taking a lot of heat for the recently revealed statement he made regarding Barack Obama during the presidential campaign.  The new book, Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, revealed that Reid thought Obama’s electoral chances were improved by the fact that he was light-skinned and had no “negro dialect” unless he wanted one.

Is this statement racist as many are claiming?  It is certainly about race, but I reject the identity politics tactic of taking anything racial and making it racist when it serves partisan purposes to paint it as such.  The fact of the matter is that there is nothing in the context of Reid’s statement that suggests racial prejudice.

He used the word “negro.”  This is an old fashioned word, for sure, but it was never one associated with racial venom the way other words have historically been.  Moreover, it is still used by many national black organizations, such as the National Council of Negro Women or the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club.  Simply saying “negro” is not racist.

Beyond the word choicHarry-Reide, the content of his statement reflects his opinion of the rest of America’s views on race, not his own.  And there is likely a grain of truth to the idea that a lighter-skinned candidate who sounds more or less white would face less racial resistance than other black candidates.  But even if it’s wrong and reflects an unfairly pessimistic view of American racial tolerance, that doesn’t make the statement itself racist.

It is interesting to note that Reid acknowledged Obama’s tendency to pander to black audiences by putting on a phony accent, where he drops his g’s and mimics the cadence of MLK.  But beyond that, I find the statement wholly uninteresting.

It is fair to point out that a non-liberal would undoubtedly be tarred as racist for making such a statement, but we can’t confuse pointing out hypocrisy with engaging in it. To brand Reid’s statement as racist in the process of pointing out hypocrisy is to undermine the very position we have rightfully staked out in the past: talking about race does not make someone a racist.

Tuesday

29

September 2009

0

COMMENTS

Suddenly Unfunded Mandates Are All The Rage

Written by , Posted in Health Care, Welfare & Entitlements

When it came to campaigning against George W. Bush, unfunded mandates were despicable.  Now they’re just a convenient way to hide the costs of annexing health care:

The more we inspect Max Baucus’s health-care bill, the worse it looks. Today’s howler: One reason it allegedly “pays for itself” over 10 years is because it would break all 50 state budgets by permanently expanding Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for the poor.

Democrats want to use Medicaid to cover everyone up to at least 133% of the federal poverty level, or about $30,000 for a family of four. Starting in 2014, Mr. Baucus plans to spend $287 billion through 2019—or about one-third of ObamaCare’s total spending—to add some 11 million new people to the Medicaid rolls.

Not every state is hit equally, though. Some states have politically connected crooks to insulate them from the burdens they place on everyone else.

Wednesday

17

June 2009

1

COMMENTS

Left Using High Profile Murders To Advance Agenda

Written by , Posted in Culture & Society, Gun Rights

In a slight twist to the “never let a crisis go to waste” motto on constant exhibit at the White House, prominent leftists have approached the recent string of high profile shootings with a resolve to not let the tragedies go to waste.  The agenda? Hate crimes and gun control.

Hate Crimes

Explicitly citing the recent shootings as evidence, Attorney General Eric Holder called for new hate crimes laws as a way to stop “violence masquerading as political activism.”  Although each incident involved the commission of acts which are already considered crimes, Holder says Congress needs to pass new legislation “to protect the rights ensured under our Constitution.”  Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has said that he is committed to getting to hate crimes legislation before the August recess.

A particularly pernicious aspect of the current hate-crimes push is the willingness of proponents to submit the accused to multiple trials, if necessary.  Although the Constitution’s prohibition against double-jeopardy has never applied cross-jurisdictions between states and the federal government, it has nevertheless long been seen as desirable to avoid the prospect of federal prosecutions following state acquittals for the same crime.  Now, the ability to try acquitted individuals again using federal hate crimes laws is seen by liberal advocacy groups as a virtue.

They’re even attempting to tie opponents of open immigration into the issue of hate crimes.  Meanwhile, ceaseless race-baiter Jesse Jackson takes the well worn low road and blames the attacks on everything from conservative talk radio to “our obsession with guns.”

Gun Control

Perpetually displeased with the reality of living under the Second Amendment and its protections for individual gun rights, the left is forever looking for ways to undermine and destroy our deep historical and cultural beliefs in self-protection and personal freedom.  Gun grabbers have a history of hijacking high profile tragedies in hopes of harnessing the emotions of the moment to enact far-reaching bans without any need for consideration of the merits.  The most recent spat of shootings are no different.

The Washington Post’s Marie Cocco dramatically writes that we are “enduring a spring of slaughter.”  And the cause of our present horror is that “we have decided to let just about anyone have a gun.” Cocco also offers the usual gun control lie, claiming that, “among the guns Poplawski reportedly used in his attack was an AK-47, a so-called “assault weapon” whose manufacture was banned in the 1990s, but is no longer.” Lying about the AWB has always been common place among its proponents.  As reality would have it, Ak-47s were not simply banned by the bill, and many variants were legal to purchase, as the bill comically dealt more with what combination of cosmetic features a gun had rather than its functionality.

The various shootings over the last few weeks are deplorable. but so are the left’s efforts to stretch the facts in order to advance a radical agenda.  Whether it be lying about the contents of past legislation and its impact, or pretending that a lunatic, jew-hating, 9/11 truther is “right-wing,” the left has demonstrated that they have no intention of getting tripped up over facts while pushing for greater government control.