The Issues
In a party of hard-line liberals, Reid is a voice of moderation. He has voted for a ban on late-term abortions and against a resolution endorsing Roe v. Wade. He is opposed to most gun-control legislation and voted to authorize war with Iraq and in the Persian Gulf in 1990.
Still, Reid has implemented a solidly Democratic agenda. According to the Washington Post Votes Database, Reid voted with his party 94.6 percent of the time in the 110th Congress. He pushed to end the war in Iraq, calling 34 votes in 2007 to try and pass a timetable for withdrawal of the troops.
He also tried to keep several of former President Bush’s judicial appointees out of office. Raising Republican ire, he called many “unfit” and held up their appointment s for several months, until a group of Senators drafted compromise legislation.
Liberal critics have called Reid too cautious, and claim that he gives in too easily to Republicans. Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) drew attacks from the liberal blogosphere when they supported the summer 2008 renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which expanded U.S. spy agency’s power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order.
Others worry that Reid has essentially allowed Senate Republicans to control the Senate because he insists on a 60-vote majority before bringing legislation to the floor.
The Economy
Reid had to scale back some of the massive spending (and agree to $282 billion in tax cuts) in order to win the three crucial Republican votes (of Sens. Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), Susan Collins (Maine) and Arlen Specter (Pa.) necessary to gain passage of economic stimulus legislation, Obama's first major triumph as president.
Reid led the Senate’s efforts to pass the fall 2008 financial bailout bill, providing up to $700 billion to struggling banks. When the House failed to pass the legislation early in the week, Reid went forward anyway, passing a bill that included $150 billion in tax breaks. This infuriated some House Democrats who opposed the cuts. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) even accused the senator of offering the House a take-it-or-leave-it choice.
Reid was a less successful advocate of the auto bailout, which would have given $15 billion in loans to the three American car companies. Auto industry executives warned that without the money, they would be forced to shutter their factories, but Republicans would not sign on to the legislation unless car companies agreed to cut the salaries of their workers. The legislation ultimately failed.
Iraq and Guatanamo
Reid initially supported the Iraq war, but has since changed his position. He has pushed for a troop withdrawal deadline and fought President Bush’s request for a troop surge. In 2007, he moved the war to the forefront of the legislative agenda, keeping the Senate in session over President’s Day to vote on a withdrawal bill. The measure failed.
Over the next several months, Reid forced 34 votes on Iraq. He was only able to pass one bill demanding troop redeployment, which former President George Bush vetoed.
But in spring 2009, Democrats had their first real rift with President Obama over the fate of enemy combatants detained at Guatanamo Bay in Cuba. Obama had pledged to shutter the prison by January 2010, but Reid and other Democratic leaders balked about accepting any prisoners in the U.S. and stripped funding from a measure appropriating funds to Iraq and Afghanistan. "This just isn't the right way to deal with this," Reid said in May 2009. "We don't want [terrorists] around the United States."
Health-Care Reform
As Senate Majority Leader, Reid oversaw the two Senate committees developing health-care reform proposals in 2009. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's (D-Mass.) Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee released a progressive plan in summer 2009, a few months before Kennedy's death from a brain tumor. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) continued working through the fall to try to hammer out a bipartisan compromise in his Finance Committee.
Reid, long an advocate of expanding access to health care, came out in favor of offering a government-run health plan that Americans could choose to buy instead of their private insurance plans. This so-called "public option" was included in Kennedy's bill.
Reid's combination of the Finance and HELP versions of the bill bore little resemblance to either, giving short shrift to ideas such as non-profit health cooperatives and nixing the idea of a triggered public option altogether.
Instead, the majority leader put together a plan he thought could get 60 votes, eventually eliminating the controversial public option and luring Democratic hold-outs with special provisions for their home-states.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated Reid's plan would cost $848 billion and extend health coverage to 31 million Americans without insurance.
The Environment and Yucca Mountain
Fighting the development of Yucca Mountain as a permanent repository for the country’s nuclear waste has been one of the defining causes of Reid’s political life. After former President Clinton pledged to veto any bill that turned Yucca Mountain into a permanent nuclear waste site, Reid worked diligently to ensure the Senate could not override the vetoes. President Bush did not make a similar vow. In 2002, his Department of Energy approved using Yucca Mountain as a permanent site. Reid was furious about the decision, saying "President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country."
On other issues, Reid has opposed environmental groups, especially where coal is concerned. He fought Clinton’s attempts to impose higher fees on miners and efforts to reduce the use of coal in the economy.
Ethics
In 2007, Reid introduced an ethics reform bill in Congress. The bill bars Senators from accepting gifts, meals and trips from lobbyists and also prevents Senators from employing former lobbyists or accepting trips. The bill quickly passed both houses, but was held up in committee when Reid wouldn’t allow Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) to sit in on negotiations.
Reid has faced questions about his own ethical conduct. In 2003, the Los Angeles Times published a piece asserting that Reid’s family members routinely lobbied his office. Reid has since banned them from doing so. Reid was also forced to explain his “routine” relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff after the Associated Press published a series of stories alleging ties. Reid has acknowledged that he received money from Abramoff’s clients, but that there was nothing illegal about their relationship.
