Reid says Boehner wasted time with doomed ‘fiscal cliff’ plan

By Karoun Demirjian

Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 | 11:39 a.m.

Sen. Harry Reid responded to House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to call off a vote on his so-called Plan B proposal to avert the “fiscal cliff” last night with a heaping dollop of I-told-you-so.

“It couldn’t pass the Senate. Turns out it couldn’t pass the House, either,” Reid said Friday. “It’s too bad Speaker Boehner wasted a week on this feudal, political stunt.”

Reid called on Boehner to put the Democrats’ preferred plan, which would allow tax rates on income above $250,000 to rise, on the House floor and let House Democrats carry the vote.

Reid stressed that no plan — not even in the Senate — can pass without bipartisan compromise. Short of that, Reid pressed Boehner to return to the negotiating table with President Barack Obama, saying “we never left.”

Republican Leader Mitch McConnell came to Boehner’s defense.

“Democrats in the House vowed they wouldn’t vote for this bill [Plan B], the majority leader vowed he’d ignore it and the president vowed he’d veto it...So, Democrats spend all day yesterday, literally all day, defeating a bill that would have made American tax rates current,” McConnell said.

“This isn’t John Boehner’s problem to solve. He’s done his part, bent over backwards,” McConnell said. “It’s the president’s job to find a solution.”

In response, Reid defended Obama and offered his most direct praise yet of the president’s latest proposal, which he presented to Boehner earlier this week.

“My friend complains the president hasn’t done enough. He put forward a proposal that has received criticism from Democrats because he was too generous with Speaker Boehner,” Reid said, calling the president’s plan “pretty good.”

“To blame us for the travesty that took place over there? That’s incredible,” Reid said.