Reid targets Washington Post columnist in floor speech

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Saturday morning criticized a Washington Post columnist who called Democratic healthcare bills "budget-busters."

"Now, Madam President, to focus on an editorial written by a man who has been retired for many years and writes a column once in a while is not where we should be," he said in his speech on the House floor.

In his column this week, the Washington Post''s David Broder said that the Congressional Budget Office's score of the House and Senate healthcare bill did not paint a full picture of the negative effect they would have on the federal budget.

"I have been writing for months that the acid test for this effort lies less in the publicized fight over the public option or the issue of abortion coverage than in the plausibility of its claim to be fiscally responsible," Broder wrote. "This is obviously turning out to be the case. While the CBO said that both the House-passed bill and the one Reid has drafted meet Obama's test by being budget-neutral, every expert I have talked to says that the public has it right. These bills, as they stand, are budget-busters."

Democrats who support healthcare reform have taken aim at the column since it was published online yesterday.

In 2004, Reid praised Broder as "a long-time syndicated columnist who is nonpartisan and fair" and last year, he called him a "moderate columnist."