This is part four of commentary on the recent debate between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and challenger Sharron Angle. The next set of questions focuses squarely on the economy.

1. Legal Daily News Feature
Reid v. Angle, Part 4
By Joshua Nave
This is part four of commentary on the recent debate between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and challenger Sharron Angle. The
next set of questions focuses squarely on the economy.
10/22/10 - but they have forgotten the lesson of President Clinton: It’s
the people, stupid.
Okay let’s move on to the
economy, and this is for you, Reid’s answer is technically correct but is of little comfort
Senator Reid. Nevada has the to the nearly 15% of Clark County that is unemployed or
highest foreclosure rate in the country. Las Vegas has the the thousands of people who have already lost or are in
highest unemployment rate in the country. In fact the jobless the process of losing their homes. Nor does a moratorium
rate has soared five percentage points in Nevada since on foreclosures by one bank do much to help the majority
President Obama has taken office. At what point will you stop of Nevada home owners who now owe more on their house
putting the blame on President Bush and start blaming the than it is worth. In his debate with Congresswoman Dina
current President, Barack Obama? Titus, Dr. Joe Heck made the point that we need to get
people to think about their house as a home and not as an
Reid: investment.
There’s plenty of blame to go around. Uh, the fact is, I’ve In January of 2009, the economy was in freefall. Any hopes of
worked hard to do something to help beleaguered Nevada a full recovery by the end of 2010 were naïve at best, and the
homeowners. Two hundred million dollars here to work on Democrats may have overextended that hope 2 years ago.
mortgages that are underwater. Forty-eight thousand people
in Nevada now have homes as a result of legislation that Do you think President Obama shares enough, as much blame
I pushed, the first-time homebuyer’s tax credit. We, as a as President Bush?
result of my pressure on Bank of America, now have no more
foreclosures by them, there’s a moratorium there. Reid:
We have to do more of course, But we have to understand Of course not. You know, Mitch, when we, when President
that they won’t be able to do to us again as I indicated earlier, Bush took office, he had a surplus, over ten years of seven
what they did to us before, because we passed Wall Street trillion dollars. We were paying down the debt in the Clinton
reform that will stop these greedy bankers on Wall Street from years. We paid down the debt by $600 billion. So we’re in this
taking advantage of homeowners. hole, and we’re trying to dig out of it.
This was yet another opportunity missed by Reid because he We lost eight million jobs during the Bush years, we’ve
skipped over the question. This question is really at the heart created three and a half million of ‘em. There’s a long ways to
of not only this election, but elections across the country this go and no one’s satisfied where we are, but let’s realize where
year. Democrats made huge gains in 2008 largely because we were and how far we’ve come.
the electorate blamed President Bush and Congressional
Republicans for the collapsing economy, but in the two years That’s no solace to somebody that’s been, lost a job, or a
that have followed that antipathy has turned on Democrats home, but we’ve made progress.
for not bailing the country out of this crisis fast enough.
Democrats have largely responded by touting specific bills and Small signs of recovery from Senator Reid. Too little, too late.
numbers - and in fact by the numbers, the recession is over
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2. Legal Daily News Feature
Angle: government that we really have spoiled our citizenry.’’
The housing bubble was caused a long time before this recent Two questions. Number one, do you think the unemployment
recession. And it has to do with things that we have refused to - do you think the unemployed - are spoiled? And then Hugh
deal with in our Senate, that Senator Harry Reid has refused from Carson City wants to know: what you plan to do to fix
to deal with over the years. the unemployment problem, especially if you believe that
getting jobs for Nevadans is not your job.
The first one is that we have a problem with the Federal
Reserve. We need a true audit of the Federal Reserve. Angle:
Secondly, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have never been really
truthfully dealt with. They’ve kept sweeping that away and Well, first of all, no I don’t think that our unemployed are
away and away - in fact, in this last finance reform bill we spoiled and that was totally mischaracterized by my opponent.
could have dealt with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae but they However he did call us that want to know what the answers
said no, it was too big a problem to deal with. are selfish children.
We need to start looking at these and looking at true We need to get Nevada back to work, and the way we do
solutions. And first we have to investigate what caused the that is by encouraging the private sector to do what they
problem in the first place. Certainly this problem has been do best, with policies from the government that give them
going on ever since Senator Reid has been in leadership and confidence so that they can go forward. Right now they’re in
that was before the Obama administration, but they’ve failed a cloud of uncertainty and they’re holding back two trillion
to deal with it in the Obama administration as well. dollars that they would like to invest in jobs for Nevadans and
Americans but they’re holding back because of more taxation
I consider myself to be a reasonably well educated man. I and regulation coming out of Senator Reid’s administrative
follow politics the way some people follow football. I have no policies.
idea what Sharron Angle is saying here. The best I can come
up with is that she is attacking the Federal Reserve along with Unemployment insurance pays you a fraction of the income
Freddie and Fannie as part of her populist anti-government you made from your last job. This is a vague answer playing
rhetoric. on Reid’s unpopularity here in Nevada, but offers no actual
solutions.
Reid:
Okay let me ask a follow up. Do you believe that getting jobs
Well we do have a commission, we have a Las Vegan, Byron for Nevadans is not your job?
Georgiou, and Heather Murren on that to find out what really
happened at the collapse, so we’re, we’re on top of that. The Angle:
Federal Reserve - I called for a Federal Reserve audit in 1985
- ‘87, I’m sorry. So, I agree with my opponent on that, there I believe that my job is to create the policies that will
should be a Federal Reserve audit. We haven’t gotten it yet, encourage the private sector to do what they do best and that
it’s uh, but we’ve made some progress in that regard. is to create jobs.
Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Probably the most direct and honest answer of the evening.
- all experts say it needs reform but you can’t do away with Although the federal government does create jobs, both
them for heaven’s sakes. We would have no way of even directly and indirectly, most people agree that the biggest
sustaining the housing market we have today. role of the federal government in relation to job creation is
to create policies that make it easy for companies to hire
Seems like Reid is about as perplexed as I am. employees. Republican and Democrat administrations both
tout their job creation numbers, but it’s a short hand way
Thank you. A next question goes to you Mrs. Angle, and it is of talking about the number of private sector jobs created
on unemployment. You were quoted as saying ‘’you can make under their watch. The difference between the two parties is
more on unemployment than you can going down there and not a matter of who creates the jobs, but what policies will
getting one of those jobs. That is an honest job but it doesn’t encourage the private sector to create the jobs that Americans
pay as much. We have put in so much entitlement into our want.
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3. Legal Daily News Feature
That would be a no. Okay. Senator Reid, your response? What Reid isn’t saying explicitly is that senators get to divvy
up portions of the federal pie and that he believes part of his
Reid: job is to direct some of that money to Nevada. As Majority
Leader, he does have the ability to bring home the bacon and
Mitch, yesterday or the day before, we had a company from as a first termer Angle would not have the influence to bring
China come here to create a thousand jobs. They’ve already as much of that money back to Nevada.
leased the warehouse, they’re going to make LED lighting.
They’re going to build windmills. That’s the result of tax policy Angle:
that I put in a bill. We have now almost two billion dollars
worth of work going on in Nevada with renewable energy jobs. Once again, Harry Reid, it’s not your job to create jobs, it’s
That’s the result of tax policy, incentives to have them do your job to create policies that create the confidence for
that. the private sector to create those jobs. And they have lost
confidence because of things like Obamacare. There’s a, a
McCarran airport, as a real, as a result of tax policy, we have business in Reno, where he wanted to hire twenty-four - five
a $3 billion project going on there today. Harrah’s, as a result - more employees but instead laid of five, just because of the
of language in a bill there, they, we saved 31,000 jobs at provisions in Obamacare.
Harrah’s alone. All these things I’ve talked about today, my
opponent is against those, she wouldn’t do that. My job is to We’re seeing those kinds of policies actually crush our
create jobs. What she’s talking about is extreme. economy over the last 20 months.
We have to do this, we’ve been doing it since Boulder Dam Angle’s frequent use of the term ‘’Obamacare’’ is stinging
was created 81 years ago. We started construction. reminder of just how poorly this administration has sold the
health care reform bill.
Second use of the ‘’extreme’’ card. Senator Reid talks about
private sector job creation and retention encouraged by Check back tomorrow for the final installment of our debate
policies he helped create or supported but also reminds us coverage where we’ll talk about the Supreme Court and one of
that sometimes federal money is used to create local jobs by the high profile issues under judicial scrutiny today.
citing the Boulder Dam (known to most as the Hoover Dam).
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