Reid: Republicans Should Stop Rooting For Economy To Fail, Start Working With Democrats To Create Jobs

75 Percent of Americans Support Democrats’ Plan to Put Teachers, First Responders Back to Work and Ask Millionaires to Pay Their Fair Share

Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid made the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding overwhelming public support – even among Republicans – for Democrats’ plan to put 400,000 teachers, police and firefighters back to work. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

This week my Republican colleagues have railed against the Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act, Democrats’ latest proposal to create hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

They point to a similar program with a proven track record of keeping 422,000 teachers in the classroom for a year as evidence this legislation will be “a failure.” But that’s because they’re using a different benchmark for success than we are.

Democrats’ number one priority is to create jobs. So to us, putting hundreds of thousands of people back to work teaching children, patrolling our streets and fighting fires constitutes a success.

But Republicans’ number one priority is to defeat President Obama, and their strategy is to keep the economy weak as long as possible. So they oppose legislation we know beyond a shadow of a doubt will support 400,000 American jobs without adding a penny to the deficit.

Never mind that Republicans have yet to propose a single idea of their own to get 14 million people working again. Never mind that in the past they have supported every one of the job creation measures that we’ve proposed.

Republicans get up every day and come to work to oppose the policies that will turn our economy around for one reason and one reason only: politics.

To me – and to most Americans – putting politics ahead of this country’s economic future is so far outside the mainstream it’s barely on the map.

But Republicans have been very candid about their goal this Congress. My friend, the Minority Leader, said this: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Defeating job-creating legislation, defeating the economy and defeating the President – that’s how Republicans measure success. But Americans don’t share those values.............