Reid to hold government funding hostage over Keystone, suggests McConnell

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday accused his Democratic counterpart, Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) of holding a government funding measure hostage because of President Obama’s opposition to the proposed transcontinental Keystone XL oil pipeline. 

“The majority leader signaled yesterday that he and the president are so determined to turn even the most bipartisan job-creating legislation into a political issue that he’ll ask his members to hold off on signing the government-funding legislation they’ve already agreed to — just to hand the president what they view as a political victory this week,” McConnell said Tuesday on the Senate floor. 

House Republicans are currently pushing for the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011, which includes several of President Obama’s policy objectives, including an extension of the payroll-tax cut, but would also fast-track construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Obama announced last month that he will wait until after the 2012 elections to decide whether or not that project will go forward.