Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he agrees with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who said this week that former President Ronald Reagan, as well as his own father, George H.W. Bush, would have a "hard time" fitting in with today's Republican Party.
"Ronald Reagan would not put up with what's going on here today, because there's no question with Ronald Reagan, country came first, not elections," Reid said Wednesday morning on the Senate floor. "The Republican [Party] no longer has room for moderates, or anyone unwilling to march in lockstep with the radical Tea Party."
Earlier in the week, Jeb Bush said his father and Reagan "would have a hard time" in the Republican Party today. "[T]hey would have a hard time if you define the Republican Party — and I don't — as having an orthodoxy that doesn't allow for disagreement, doesn't allow for finding some common ground," he said.
Reid has criticized the Tea Party influence on the Republican Party since the 2010 elections, and he reiterated those criticisms on Wednesday, charging again that Republicans are looking to tank the economy to make it easier for Mitt Romney to beat President Obama in November.
"Today's radical Republicans have another agenda," he said. "Not hiring more cops, not doing something to stop the teacher layoffs, but their goal is to drag down the economy because it's good for their politics. They believe that the more horrible the economy is, the better off they're going to be in November."
Reid also blasted House Republicans in particular for saying that major legislation is unlikely this year because of the elections, and for taking a week off this week.
"Republicans in the House are lurching from one recess to the next recess," he said. "Long recess. They don't take short ones, they take long ones."
He said Republicans are shirking their duty to help find a way to ensure jobs in the government sector, and said first responders are needed, in particular firefighters. "Because of global warming, there are fires raging all over the West," he said.
"Today's Republicans aren't interested in good policy, and obviously they aren't interested in creating jobs," he said. "They're obsessed with defeating President Obama."
