Posted on 12/18/2013 11:10:39 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) thinks the healthcare law will ultimately help Senate Democrats in 2014 even though some incumbents fear a backlash at the polls.
“I think for sure it will be a net positive,” said Reid, who expects the law to become more of a political benefit as problems are smoothed out by Election Day. “I think so by then for sure.”
Reid said feedback to the Obama administration from Democratic senators has helped improve the federal enrollment site HealthCare.gov since its disastrous launch in October.
“It’s gotten significantly better, but it was significantly bad so it has a long way to go,” he said Wednesday during an interview with The Hill in his Capitol office overlooking the National Mall.
The Senate leader noted that Phil Schiliro, a senior White House adviser coordinating the implementation of the new healthcare law, met earlier Wednesday with Democratic senators who are facing tough reelection races next year.
“Phil Schiliro ... came up today and had a good meeting with my 2014ers. The discussions were led by [Senate Democratic Whip Dick] Durbin [(D-Ill.)] and it was an extremely positive, good meeting,” Reid said.
“That’s what we’ve needed from the White House for some time now, is someone to be able to reach out to,” he said.
Reid said White House chief of staff Denis McDonough is a “good person but he’s overwhelmed with work, and he did not have the capacity, which is time, to do the hands-on work that is necessary with my senators.”
He said senior White House staffers weren’t responsive at the height of the public uproar over the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
"There was a period of time there where there were no questions that were answered because they were so overwhelmed with trying to get that program fixed," he said.
Reid’s biggest political job next year will be protecting the Senate majority and the vulnerable Democratic incumbents in states like Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina.
“The only thing I want from the White House in 2014 is for them to be available to my senators who are running for reelection,” Reid said.
He said he doesn’t worry that President Obama’s approval ratings, which have hit the low 40s, will affect Senate races next year, even though Republicans will do everything they can to tie Democratic candidates to the president’s promise that people would be able to keep their health plans if they like them.
"His numbers are going to go up. It's a question of what's gone on with this healthcare thing. It will get better," he said. "I've seen this over the years. You'd be surprised what three months' difference makes."
His hallmark as leader has been to strictly limit votes on politically charged amendments, which Republicans offer to collect political ammo for Senate campaigns.
Reid will likely continue that approach next year by teeing up votes on legislation designed to highlight differences between Democrats and Republicans on the economy.
He said he would make combating income inequality his top priority when Congress returns from the Christmas recess, starting with legislation to renew federal unemployment benefits.
“We’re going to come back and we’re going to do unemployment. I’m pleased that as I understand it that [Sen.] Jack Reid [(D-R.I.)] and [Sen.] Dean Heller [(R-Nev.)] are going to be the people who are going to move the bill forward,” he said. “Then we’re going to do flood insurance. Then we’re going to do minimum wage.
“Those things are not going to take care of the income inequality although it would help significantly,” he said. “And then we have process important nominations.”
Democrats expect Obama to make jobs and the economy his chief focus in the State of the Union address on Jan. 28.
Reid will have some work to do to unify the Senate Democratic Caucus on raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, a proposal championed by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who is a top GOP target next year, does not support the legislation, and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) prefers the president's initial proposal to raise it to $9 an hour.
Looking forward to the next debt-ceiling fight, Reid said he does not expect Republicans will force another standoff after October’s 16-day government shutdown pushed the GOP’s approval rating to a historic low.
He also expressed confidence that Republicans will not be able to capture the six seats they need to regain control of the Senate.
He thinks Democrats have a good chance of picking up the Senate-held seat in Georgia, where Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), is running.
Reid is also heartened by the addition of former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta to Obama’s inner circle of advisers.
“John Podesta is going to bring some political savvy to the White House, and I think that's so important,” he told Bloomberg Television last week.
Harry:
You went full Pelosi.
Never go full Pelosi.
That’s funny right there. Reid said he wants the Kenyan Buttdragger to stump for Dimsenators in the next election. Yeah, that’s gonna happen. You gotta wonder how Dingyharry is on getting double-crossed by the Kenyan? The only place the Kenyan will be stumping is at the parties who are padding his retirement stash.
“Harry needs to keep his butt muscles tightly clenched...”
If Reid does that, he would be prudent to avoid the cops in New Mexico.
There is a seething hatred growing against this Administration and the Democrat Party.
2014 is going to make 1994 look tame by comparison.
The Liberals are losing their own base, including the Millennials, who aren't to come out to support the Democrats.
Harry is sniffing glue.
Without ‘health care’ how do you end the free ride that uninsured get at hospitals and whose costs are spread to others? That’s what 2014 will be about. If not Obamacare, what? Cancel & Replace?
If the young people tank on Obama he’s done. tere isn’t enough black voters to win the day for the DemoCommunists.
How long do you think Reid could hold onto a hangman’s noos around his neck if I sprung the trap door? I can dream can’t I?
IIRC, San Fran Nan said the dims would hold the house in 2010 too. That worked out really well - for us.
“Vote democrat or we might decide your current health insurance plan isn’t good enough.”
That’s what I’m hearing from Reid in regards to how this will help the rats hold through 2014.
“my 2014ers” and “my senators”. The little man does, in fact, own them.
Too bad the son-of-a-bitch hasn't died from it yet.
So, Harry and his cronies will make 2014 all about erasing “income inequality”? In other words, buying their way back into the Senate by appeasing the “poor”. The only thing that will truly work against income inequality is for the government to get out of the private sector, ease up on stupid and unnecessary regulations that stifle business, lessen the tax load on small businesses and last, but not least, quit the non-stop support of the lazy able-bodied young adults with the hard earned tax dollars of the working class - giving them no incentive to find work. I went to college on my own dime working sometimes three different jobs and when minimum wage was $1.50 an hour! It CAN still be done - if you want it bad enough.
Yeah, we have to remember. It's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes that counts. And we already know how creative the Democratic Party leftists can be when counting votes.
Dirty Harry’s current comments are proving to me that he cannot pass a 51-50 test.
He is mentally unbalanced & needs to be removed from the US Senate.
Democrat code words....means: "We're nice guys...we'll let Repubs think they're gonna takeover. Us Democrats' got a well-oiled voter fraud machine that will make mincemeat out of those guys."
Mark my words: Dems will take a beating ext November. Not saying one or two GOP candidates wont blow it (like Sharon Angle did in 2010) but many of those voters who came out to save Obama are staying home.
Hope and Change officially died mid October when the shutdown ended and they were introduced to the REAL Obamacare.
I agree but do not want to be overly optimistic.
Dems are pure evil-—they are loathe to lose power-—
and will do and say anything to preserve their privileges.
Let me add that Reid HAS to say this, as does Wassermann Schultz in House.
Their members start panicking and it will get ugly on the Dem side, it will be like Republicans on the shutdown.
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