Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday gave credit to the Democratic-led Senate for rising job creation and a rising stock market over the last several years, disputing GOP arguments that the Senate under Reid achieved almost nothing.
Reid is still not at work, and is recovering from an exercise accident on New Year's Day. But he prepared a statement that was read on the Senate floor Wednesday by Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wrote Wednesday that the Senate should be credited with job creation and a higher stock market over the last few years. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)
"The new majority leader claims the Senate has not achieved, in his words, 'squat' in recent years," wrote Reid, referring to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). "The numbers, in fact, tell a different story."
"Today, the U.S. unemployment rate stands at 5.8 percent," Reid wrote. "Over the last six years, the American economy has added 10 million jobs. The stock market has reached all-time highs. Our nation's manufacturers are thriving, the American automobile industry was brought back from the brink of collapse, in spite of Republican opposition."
"And let's not forget that there are more than 10 million Americans newly insured with healthcare coverage," Reid added. "While some here in Washington may see that as 'squat,' the economic recovery has been very real to American families."
Reid reiterated that Democrats would not employ the "gratuitous obstruction" that Republicans employed while they were in the minority. But Reid also said Democrats would not "roll over" if the GOP goes too far.
"I have no intention of just rolling over," Reid wrote. "I can't, not when the middle class is teetering on the verge of extinction."
"Any attempt to erode protections for working American families, the dismantling of Dodd-Frank, the weakening of net neutrality rules, or the Republicans' never-ending quest to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, will be met with swift and unified Democratic opposition," he wrote.
