Politics

Reid spokesman: ‘Boehner’s bill dies tonight’

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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House Republicans are just wasting their time debating Speaker John Boehner’s debt reduction bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today.

“Boehner’s bill dies tonight,” Reid communications director Adam Jentleson wrote on Twitter. “Forever.”

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the legislation today. Reid said Thursday afternoon he plans to put the bill up for a vote in the Senate afterwards.

“As soon as the House completes its vote, the Senate will move to take up that bill,” Reid said, “and it will be defeated tonight.”

“No Democrat will vote for a short-term Band-Aid that would put our economy at risk and put the nation back in this untenable situation a few short months from now,” he said.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, shot back in an email to The Daily Caller: “House Republicans will vote today on a second bill to raise the debt limit and end this crisis, while Senate Democrats have failed to pass any bill to do so.  Why can’t Senate Democrats say ‘yes’ to this reasonable, responsible and bipartisan solution?”

During a press conference on the Capitol steps earlier Thursday, one Republican congressman got a few laughs when speaking about Reid’s performance during the debt negotiations.

“If Mr. Reid wants to really talk about this,” Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania said, “then maybe ‘Profiles in Cowardice’ is the book that would’ve been written about what he’s done the last several weeks.”