Harry Reid Warns GOP: No 'Show Votes' on Defunding Planned Parenthood

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) denounced abortion-related legislation as “show votes,” as he announced that he, President Barack Obama, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) favored a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down.

Obama met with the two Democratic leaders Thursday at the White House, and determined they were giving up on reaching a budget deal with the Republican majority in Congress by the end of the month.

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“The three of us agree that we want a short-term CR,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), after he and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met with Obama at the White House.

“This is a serious time for our country and we’ve got to get past 20-week abortion ban show votes, as the Pope is coming, we’ve got to get past Planned Parenthood votes, and re-voting three times on Iran,” Reid told reporters after the meeting.

The two big sticking points over a budget is funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, and whether to maintain sequester cuts.

“I’m hopeful we all in agreement that we should not have a government shutdown as costly as it was to the American people before,” Pelosi said. “We want to be cooperative, we want to negotiate and see that that gets done in a timely fashion.”

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