HARRY REID'S ALTERNATE REALITY

This guy is utterly shameless:

During a news conference on Capitol Hill held on the eve of implementation of the cuts, known on Capitol Hill as "The Sequester," a reporter asked Reid: "Can you understand the frustration of the American people that you're blaming the Republicans, the Republicans are blaming you and nobody is talking until the day that these cuts kick in?"  Reid replied:

"You know I read an editorial today, and I don't know whether it was the Times or the Post, where the op-ed writer said, 'You know, let’s call it the way it is. The Republicans aren't willing to deal with the Democrats.
 
"So all this stuff -- Democrats aren't doing anything, Republicans aren’t doing anything --I believe that you guys have an obligation to report it the way it is," he said.
 
"This isn’t something that happened yesterday, we've been fighting this for a couple years," Reid added. "They're unwilling to do what the American people want done. And it's as simple as that."

There is a kernel of truth in what Reid says.  This really isn't something that happened yesterday.  This latest farce - like other manufactured farces such as the debt ceiling and fiscal cliff - has been the direct result of Reid's deliberate refusal to even allow a budget to be proposed in the Senate, let alone passed.  

It has now been 1,402 days since the Senate passed a budget back in April 2009.  The budget passed was for Fiscal Year 2010 and it was done at a time when the Democrats held all the cards.  Obama in the White House, Reid controlling the Senate and Pelosi controlling the House of Representatives.  Reid had a filibuster-proof majority to do his bidding. He's been using that Democrat-approved spending baseline ever since through a series of continuing resolutions.

Since the historic Tea Party-fueled GOP midterm victories in 2010 that brought the House back under control of Republicans, Reid's no-budget strategy has also been useful in setting up repeated confrontations designed to demonize House Republicans in the eyes of the public.  The Republicans, according to The Narrative that has been promoted by the Dems and their media allies, are the "Party of No" and the lunatics who are "holding the economy hostage" in order to protect the "evil 1%..."

Once the Republicans had control of the House they passed the so-called Ryan budget on April 14, 2011. That was for FY 2012.  On March 29, 2012 House Republicans passed a budget for 2013 called the "Path to Prosperity."  Meanwhile, Reid has refused to let a budget proposal come out of committee in the Senate and also refuses to vote on House budgets.  So who is the obstructionist here?

UPDATE: I had a proglodyte on Twitter try to tell me that the Budget Control Act of 2011 was "budget."  This was in response to my criticism of Harry Reid for his obstructionism in not allowing a budget proposal, let alone a resolution, to come out of the Senate that he controls.  This same clown also tried to claim that - thanks to the GOP - Reid couldn't get 60 votes to move a budget along.  I got no response when I pointed out that nobody filibusters a budget proposal.  Anyway, the issue of whether or not the Budget Control Act qualifies as a "budget" came up last fall in the New Jersey Senate race between the incumbent, Bob Menendez and his challenger, Joe Kyrillos.

In a heated debate Wednesday on New Jersey 101.5-FM, the Democratic incumbent and Kyrillos argued over whether the U.S. Senate has passed a budget in the last three years. The two candidates will face off in the Nov. 6 general election.

"The Senate hasn’t passed a budget in three years," said Kyrillos, who represents part of Monmouth County. "That’s just a fact, hasn’t done it."

But Menendez said that wasn’t true: "Secondly, there is a budget. It’s called the Budget Control Act and you should look it up. You’d understand then that your statement about not having a budget for the last three years would be wrong."

Who was right?  PolitiFact left no doubt about that:

During last week’s debate, Menendez claimed Kyrillos' statement was wrong and that the Senate has passed "a budget" in the last three years, "called the Budget Control Act."

That Act set limits on discretionary spending, but it is missing other features of a "budget resolution," which is considered a budget plan under the official congressional budget process. The Senate hasn’t passed such a plan in more than three years.

We rate the statement FALSE.