Harry Reid: Obama Trying "to Get More Power"
Harry Reid said in an interview with CBS News Wednesday that President Obama is seeking "to get more power" with his State of the Union call for a ban on earmarks.
"Any president would love to be able to get more power, and that is what this is all about," he said. "It's usurping the power from the legislative branch of the government and giving it to the executive branch. I don't accept that."
Added Reid: "I have a constitutional obligation to do congressionally-directed spending. The president wants more power and I don't want to give him any. He may be able to succeed in the short term, but earmarks will come back."
Watch the video at left.
Reid has defended earmarks, which make up a tiny portion of the federal budget, but Senate Republicans have instituted a moratorium on them. That decision did not come easy: Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell initially opposed the ban but eventually gave inamid pressure from the Tea Party wing of his party.
In initially opposing the ban, McConnell made much the same argument as Reid. On "Face the Nation," McConnell expressed concerns about an earmarks moratorium giving the White House more control over federal spending, arguing that the issue is "about an argument between the executive branch and the legislative branch over how funds should be spent."
Earmarks are requests by individual lawmakers for funds to be directed to their districts for projects or companies. Earmarking allows lawmakers to get around the bidding process that goes through the executive branch.
In the interview with CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes, Reid also addressed Michele Bachmann's response to the State of the Union, stating, "I haven't found anyone that wrote about it or talked about that thought it was very good." He said both the Tea Party response from Bachmann and the official GOP response from Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin were "very, very weak."
Reid also complimented the bipartisan seating arrangement at the State of the Union. He said the arrangement made the audience more "deliberative" and "polite."
"I have been coming to a lot of these State of the Unions and I am frankly very tired of this jumping up and down," he said. "...I just think some things have gotten way out of hand. Yelling and screaming on a party basis. Last night really took a lot of that away."
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Click here to watch another clip from the interview below where Reid talks about working with Republicans on spending cut. Or watch the full interview below:
