• [We’ll] see if Republican senators like the Ryan budget as much as their House colleagues did.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid • Speaking on a conference call to reporters about his plan to force a vote on Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget in the Senate. This is prototypical “hardball” politics, and implies a more aggressive Harry Reid than we’ve typically seen. Basically, the Ryan budget calls for Medicare privatization, an enormously unpopular idea with the American public. Having seen the boisterous reactions GOP House members have weathered since returning to their home districts, Reid now knows he can force the Republican senators either to vote for it and poison their records, or vote against it, abandoning the lockstep unity congressional Republicans showed off so well during the first two years of President Obama’s term. It’s the obvious political move, and a potent one to boot. source

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