Harry Reid Looking for Goodwill for Cutting $1 Billion

By Greg Campbell
TPNN Contributor

Sometimes, I really don’t think the Democrats are listening. It’s like that scene in “Cool Hand Luke” – What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.

The problem with the looming fiscal cliff is not only that we have to make tough decisions and haggle with Democrats; it’s that GOP leaders are going to have to insist on cuts in entitlement spending to Democrats who believe that doing it their way is compromise.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has recently proven that he’s on an entirely different planet. When discussing the fiscal cliff, a reporter asked,

“Conventional wisdom on a fiscal cliff deal is that it has to include revenues and cuts. You guys have made it pretty clear how you feel about revenues, what’s the first thing on the list of Democrats to cut?”

Reid, wasting not a second, replied,

“Well, remember- we’ve already done more than a billion dollars worth of cuts- we’ve already done that. So we need to get some credit for that in these negotiations that take place.”

A billion dollars? I find it astonishing that Reid can, with a straight face, posture as if a billion dollars should buy the Democrats any goodwill. We are talking serious numbers here and the man who is quick to call any Republican an obstructionist is attempting to pacify critics by patting himself on the back for cutting a billion dollars? That’s like saying you’re proud you lost weight because you clipped your toenails.

Why, I believe it just a few months ago that liberal economist Paul Krugman claimed when talking about Solyndra, “We’re talking as if a billion dollars was a lot of money. In $15 trillion economy, it’s not.”

To put it in perspective, last year’s deficit was $1.1 trillion. Reid is seeking credit for having parted with enough entitlements to cut less than 1/1000th of what we overspent- less than one-tenth of one-percent.

With a national debt of $16 trillion, the Democrats’ cuts are less than one-sixteen thousandths of the national debt. So maybe he should hold off on pouring the big cooler of Gatorade on Obama for right now because there’s still plenty more to do.