Harry Reid is using his last days as Senate Majority Leader to pull out his annual grinch impersonation.
The top Democrat has threatened to cancel Congress’s Christmas holiday in order to address funding issues that he says could potentially cause a government shutdown.
“We have a lot to do. And there isn’t much time to accomplish it. I urge all senators to work hard to complete our work in a timely and efficient fashion. We may have to be here the week before Christmas … and hopefully, not into the Christmas holiday,” said Reid Monday.
We’ve heard it all before from Reid, who has used Christmas as political leverage on an almost annual basis since 2009.
In 2013, Reid said he’d work Congress through Christmas Eve unless the Republican minority gave ground on budget and defense bills as well as several presidential appointments including current Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
“I’ve lined out what we need to do, and it’s up to the minority to determine what, if anything, they’re going to stop us from doing.” stated Reid. A budget deal would eventually pass before Christmas.
During the 2012 fiscal cliff crisis, Reid said he’d reconvene the chamber on the day after Christmas and stated lawmakers should be ready to “complete work on the fiscal cliff.”
Congress would eventually return from their Christmas break on Dec. 27, two days after Christmas and even President Obama would cut his Hawaiian vacation short that year in a last ditch effort to strike a deal, which would eventually pass as the new year began.
The most famous incident occurred in 2009, when Reid kept the Senate in session on Christmas Eve in an effort to find the 60th vote he needed to pass Obamacare. He ultimately got it after making side deals with Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., to bring more money to their states.
Yet even though Christmas is a busy time of year for Harry Reid, his threats of an actual Christmas Day spent on Capitol Hill never seem to pan out.
