No Sense of Urgency from Reid with Shutdown Just Hours Away

With a government shutdown looming tonight and a compromise continuing resolution passed last Saturday night in the House, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is showing no sense of urgency to get lawmakers moving on a resolution.

First, Reid didn’t call lawmakers back in on Sunday, even though senators were told to remain with a couple hours of the Hill.

“In less than 48 hours, our government will shut down,” Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Sunday morning. “Instead of taking a day off, Majority Leader Reid should call Senators back to Washington and pass the common sense legislation to delay Obamacare.”

Then, the Senate doesn’t reconvene until 2 p.m. today.

“The Senate stands adjourned until 2:00pm on Monday, September 30. Following any leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:00pm, with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each. Senators will be notified when any votes are scheduled,” the leader’s schedule states.

Some senators even have Monday events in their home states. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), for example, is holding a presser at a defense contractor in Glastonbury, Conn., to highlight what the effects of a shutdown would be.

On Saturday, Reid called the marathon House session, in which the Senate CR was amended to delay Obamacare’s implementation for a year and the medical device tax was repealed permanently, “pointless.”

“As I have said repeatedly, the Senate will reject any Republican attempt to force changes to the Affordable Care Act through a mandatory government funding bill or the debt ceiling. Furthermore, President Obama has stated that he would veto such measures if they ever reached his desk,” Reid said.

“To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax. After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one: Republicans must decide whether to pass the Senate’s clean CR, or force a Republican government shutdown,” he continued, without any urgency of calling members back for debate or a vote.

“Senate Democrats have shown that we are willing to debate and vote on a wide range of issues, including efforts to improve the Affordable Care Act. We continue to be willing to debate these issues in a calm and rational atmosphere. But the American people will not be extorted by Tea Party anarchists.”

President Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an hour this morning followed by a “working lunch.” He then holds a cabinet meeting in the late afternoon.