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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) smiles during a news conference following a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas Wednesday, August 31, 2011.
By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011 | 4:51 p.m.
Sun Coverage
In his first-ever Twitter town hall, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid charged Republicans are holding up progress on President Barack Obama’s jobs bill. But he still plans to push the Senate to vote on the $450 billion measure.
“We’re going to have the Republicans belly up to the bar and turn down this plan that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs,” Reid said, as he fielded questions via the social-media web platform.
He also included online poker in his jobs message: “We have millions and millions of people that are playing online right now...what we need to do is make it legal. Online poker would create jobs, and lots of jobs.”
Reid also promised that he would bring up a bipartisan bill to censure China’s currency-lowering practices, and expressed incredulity that bills to fund transportation projects had not yet progressed. Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn has been objecting to funding dedicated specifically to bike paths -- an issue Reid referred to without naming the senator. Coburn wants to make the funds dedicated to walking and bike trails open to states’ discretion -- a change that in most places, would mean those projects wouldn’t see any money.
Reid’s 30-minute town hall ran for closer to 20 minutes, and included plenty of local shout-outs: to Nevada-based Bombard Electric (“that little company has done good things; they were the ones who put a solar unit at my home in Nevada.”); D.W. Bistro of Spring Valley; and townhalls in Las Vegas -- though that one was rather the opposite of a shout-out ("Guarantee I have more people at my Twitter town hall. I’ve been to some of those town hall meetings where six or seven people show up on a good day.”)
The questions he fielded appeared to provide more of a platform for him to explain his positions than challenge his critics.
Among the handful of questions he took were a query from Sen. Jay Rockefeller about whether a bill on disaster relief funding could pass, and a question from the National Council of La Raza. Moderator and Deputy Chief of Staff Darrel Thompson skipped questions from Republicans about Reid’s personal finances, why the Senate hadn’t yet taken up most House economic bills and his support for Nevada Senate candidate Shelley Berkley.
We spend money like this in the pass and got nothing in return. We just had a business stick the tax payers for over 500 million. Reid and Obama make you want to throw up !
From the Detroit Free Press:
Twenty-five of the 100 largest U.S. corporations paid their chief executives more than they paid the U.S Government in federal income taxes last year, according to a report released Wednesday.
The 25 firms that paid out more in CEO compensation than U.S. taxes reported average global profits of $1.9 billion, the think tank said.
Among the firms it cited are International Paper, Prudential Financial, General Electric, Verizon Communications, Bank of New York Mellon, Boeing, Stanley Black & Decker, Chesapeake Energy and eBay.
The nonprofit Institute for Policy Studies said the 25 CEOs averaged $16.7 million in 2010 salary and other compensation. Most of the companies they ran, meanwhile, came out ahead at tax time, collecting tax refunds that averaged $304 million, according to its review of public filings.
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acejoker: the corporate world doesn't center around Las Vegas. The Corporate world is cash rich and hoarding as much as possible to pay their owners and CEOs, while creating periodic layoffs to bargain down the average pay of their employees.
So the chorus from Judy Garland still rings true:
I am here to state
I'm here to relate
To explain
and make it plain that:
I`m just wild about Harry
and Harry's wild about me;
Sig'em Harry.
Awesome show of power and 'leadership' there, Harry, in getting Marshall elected.
Will the dummocrats in this state ever learn?!?
HARRY REID IS THE MAN!!!
YES Harry, make those republicans show their
cards.
Republicans need to sign up for American jobs or
get out of the way.
Americans need jobs.
GIVE EM HELL, HARRY.
Obama helped out Bank of America in Stimulus 1, now wants to lay off 40,000 Americans.
Obama says Stimulus 2 will be just as successful, if not more.
Gotta love Obama math.
I don't think it will make any new jobs...but i'm sure the tax increases he has in the bill will cost some. Way to go with the gimme more theme.
Sorry ace, Obama is ahead of Perry, in today's
poll, 50-46.
Liberals out number greedy republicans.
Americans won't go back to the bush/republican
greed, which made this mess.
Not going to happen, ace.
Harry Reid relates well with the Democrat mascot. First, Senator Coburn wants to eliminate the transportation portion of the FAA bill which includes bike paths and "beautifican projest" on highways. These are items we should not be spending taxpayer money on when we have the deficit we do.
And, obama's jobs bill is a bunch of crap. Much of it is similar to the first stimulus which "has to be passed right away" also.
One portion, the "tax cut" that Mr. Obama mentioned in his speech is out and out "thievery". By reducing the employee and employer payroll taxes (a.k.a. social security contributions) 3.1% it creates additional problems. There are issues with the Social Security program now and Obama wants to take money away from it? He's borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Not to mention, when it comes to the end of the year there will not be enough contribution dollars to cover the social security benefits paid out so the trustees will be forced to go into the Social Security Trust Fund to sell treasuries to cover the short fall. Consequently, he's stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS.