Republican leaders have been throwing a “temper tantrum,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid charged Monday as the Senate reconvened after its Fourth of July recess.
Reid, D-Nevada, re-engaged his fight with Republicans quickly. He charged Republicans with obstructionist tactics, saying in a Senate floor speech, “We’ve already established they’re doing it to make us look bad and the president look bad...they’re mad about a lot of things, I guess.”
Reid lamented how the Senate once had many centrist Republicans, but not anymore.
“They’re all gone, except Susan Collins,” he told the Senate, referring to the Maine senator.
Republicans did not immediately respond.
Democrats changed debate rules on most judges and executive appointees last year so that it now takes 51 votes, instead of 60, to limit debate.
Yet Republicans still “have wasted more time killing time,” Reid charged. “They just want to slow things down. They want everybody to look bad.”