Harry Reid President Quotations

The American people do not like privatization. They are afraid of the debt the president's willing to do. And they don't like benefit cuts. And everyone here should understand all 45 Senate Democrats are united. We are not going to let this happen.

It has been my honor to support and work with President Barack Obama, a man who has brought courage and character to the presidency. President Obama's strength of character leads him to do the right thing, even when it isn't the easy thing.

Some said he shouldn't save Detroit. But President Obama made the tough and right call to save more than a million American jobs in an important, iconic industry.

Some said he couldn't take on the insurance companies that were ripping us off. But President Obama made the tough and right call to save lives, save Medicare and ensure no one goes broke just because they get sick.

Until the president and the Republican leadership agree that their misguided attempt to privatize Social Security is over and they will no longer pursue their previously announced bait-and-switch strategy, Democrats will continue to refuse to enter negotiations over Social Security,

We're spending a lot of money in the Gulf, ... We have to do that, but is there anyone in the world that can justify $70 billion in tax cuts? I don't think so. So before I talk about offsets, let the president focus on that.

Let's have a real investigation and a vote here in the Senate. What the president has agreed to is no review.

Leaking classified information to discredit White House critics, the vice president is behind that,

Now that the president has said he will nominate Judge Roberts as chief justice, the stakes are higher, ... The Senate must be vigilant in considering this nomination.

Only the president can put this matter to rest. He must tell the American people whether the Bush Oval Office is the place where the buck stops, or the leaks start.

He was blackballed because he couldn't live up to the standards of the right wing, ... I'm sure his dad (former President Bush) gave him a pat on the back, but it's a back pat he's going to regret.

I think it sends a message to the American people that this guy is not King George, he's President George.

I think the American people can see through this so clearly. The president should come forward with some middle-of-the-road person, somebody that is going to be a good Supreme Court justice, not somebody that's going to be writing the law from the bench, ... This Week.

I want you to know that when we believe the president is on the right track, we won't let partisan interests get in the way of what's good for our country. But when he gets off track, we will be there to hold him accountable,

I think the reason it took the Vice President a day to talk about this is part of the secretive nature of this administration. The American people are not entitled to know what is going in their mindset. They keep things pretty close to the chest.

Just as the president and his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill are trying to slash Medicaid, today's report demonstrates that fewer Americans can rely on employer-based health care coverage and Medicaid is growing in importance for millions. ... We should be working to address the rising cost of health care, not cutting the bottom out from under our families,

Last year, Congress overwhelmingly called on President Bush to make 2006 a year of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty. The domestic public relations campaign waged by the White House and the new round of presidential speeches does not advance that goal.

I said, 'Mr. President, you have your vice president here as a result of a search that he made,'

Over the last five years, Democrats have watched with the American people as President Bush and Republicans have moved America in the wrong direction. We've seen their dangerous incompetence.

Our troops and the American people need the president to pay more than just lip service to a strategy for the war in Iraq, they need him to lay out what that strategy is with clear markers by which success can be measured,

President Bush should forget about privatizing Social Security,

President Bush needs to quit stonewalling about his White House's connection to corruption and finally tell us how he's going to reform Washington.

President Bush must fully disclose his participation in the selective leaking of classified information. The American people must know the truth.

President Bush has dropped the equivalent of 100,000 dirty bombs on America, ... All Americans should be concerned, not just because he lied to me or the people of Nevada and indeed all Americans, but because the president's decision threatens American lives.

Staying the course is not an option, ... President Bush has failed to provide either a strategy for success or a convincing record of political and military progress.

I think Karl Rove should step down. Here is a man who the president said if he was involved, if anyone in the administration was involved, out they would go.

The American people and our brave troops deserve better than a photo-op for the president and a pep-rally about Iraq. They deserve a plan. Unfortunately, today's event only served to highlight the fact that the president refuses to engage in a frank conversation about the realities on the ground,

We're demanding President Bush make a commitment to the American people that he will not pardon Scooter Libby, who was involved in this mess, nor will he pardon anyone involved in this mess,

The president has made his choice, ... Now the Senate will do its job of deciding whether to confirm John Roberts to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court.

The president can give all the speeches he wants but nothing will change the fact that his Iraq policy is wrong.

The president can give all the speeches he wants, but nothing will change the fact that his Iraq policy is wrong. Two weeks ago, he told the American people that Iraqis would control their country by the end of the year. But last week, he told us our troops would be there until at least 2009.

Unfortunately, today's event only served to highlight the fact that the president refuses to engage in a frank conversation about the realities on the ground.

Why didn't President Bush immediately return to Washington from his vacation?

yet another missed opportunity by the vice president to come clean with the American people and lay out a strategy for success in Iraq.

The president is 0-3 in his last three speeches. In order to support the mission, the American people need to know the remaining military and political benchmarks.

The president's speech tonight used lofty, yet recycled, rhetoric to paint a picture of a country that has prospered and become stronger in this new century. Unfortunately, that's not the America his policies have created for too many families... A year ago, the president overreached by threatening to privatize and dismantle Social Security. This year, he reached for too little.

The president often says it is the responsibility of elected officials here in Washington to face today's challenges and not to pass them on to future generations. Yet it is his runaway budget and trade deficits, billions spent on tax giveaways, backwards-looking energy plan designed by and for special interests, and inaction during this country's health-care crisis that have created a myriad of problems for our children's generation.

The president offered comforting words tonight, but the victims of Hurricane Katrina don't need just words, they need a plan that will lead the way in recovery, rebuilding, and renewal.

The President is off to a bad start. He owes the American people honest answers on whether he wants to reform Social Security or privatize it.

The reason the legislation was passed (creating the stockpile and the price trigger) is to have the president have the ability at times like this to pull heating oil from that reserve,

To me it shows how dangerously incompetent he is. 'Stay the course, mission accomplished, bring 'em on,' the American people are sick of that. We need to change course in Iraq. ... I think the president burying his head in the sand is not going to do the trick.

First of all, the vice president issues this very terse statement praising Libby for all the great things he's done,

The vice president issues this very terse statement praising Libby for all the great things he's done. Then we have the president come on camera a few minutes later calling him Scooter and what a great patriot he is, ... This Week.

The state of the union today is that we have low-income Americans begging for their prescription drugs, and seniors are going without any coverage. The president has botched the Medicare so badly that it doesn't resemble a 'benefit' for most seniors.

On this Veterans Day, the president had the opportunity to honor our troops, both those who have served and those who are currently serving, by laying out a clear strategy for success in the war in Iraq. Instead, the president resorted to his old playbook of discredited rhetoric about the War on Terror and political attacks as his own political fortunes and credibility diminish,

After driving the nation into a fiscal mess, the president is asking our seniors, our students, and our families to clean it up while the wealthy special interests reap the rewards.

After creating record deficits and debt with his budget busting tax breaks, the president is asking our seniors, our students, and our families to clean up his fiscal mess with painful cuts in health care and student aid.

As he did last week, the president once again failed to provide a strategy for success or speak honestly to the American people about the failures in rebuilding Iraq and the challenges that lie ahead.

At a time when the president is abusing his power at every turn, I cannot vote to confirm a judge who won't be an independent check on the executive branch.

It is unfortunate the president made such a divisive nomination.

Democrats believe it's time for the President to stop dropping the ball, and to start implementing a more comprehensive strategy to fight the war on terror.

Everyone knows Karl Rove is involved, ... If the president is a man of his word, Rove should be history.

The families in the Gulf ... certainly don't need to hear another speech from President Bush,

I'm not in the habit of patting the president on the back.

I hope the president and his administration will act swiftly to provide the Congress with damage assessments so that we can provide immediate relief to the people of the Gulf Coast. We must not waste any time in giving these families the resources they need.

In his speech, the president needs to tell the American people what he is going to do to end the culture of corruption and lay out solutions that will make America stronger.

I have no confidence he will serve as a real check on abuse of power so expansive with this administration. President Bush continues to believe he is above the law ... No one is above the law and we need a strong federal judiciary to protect against this abuse.

In the last 24 hours, 10 of our brave soldiers have been killed in far-off Iraq, ... On such a night, you would think Cheney would give a speech that honors the fallen and those still fighting by laying out a strategy for success. Instead we have the vice president of the United States playing politics like he's in the middle of a presidential campaign.

I think not only should the president appear before the American public and explain what is going on and take a few questions from the press, but certainly the vice president should do that, ... Late Edition.

Hopefully, by then, President Bush and his majority leader will have found the backbone to stop the extreme elements of the Republican Party from blocking improvements to America's security.

I am pleased to see that the president has finally followed our lead and released his avian flu plan today,

How much time did the president spend dealing with this emerging crisis while he was on vacation? Did the fact that he was outside of Washington, D.C., have any effect on the federal government's response?

He (Bush) should apologize. The vice president should apologize. They should come clean with the American public, ... This Week.

Social Security is not in crisis. It's a crisis the president's created, period.

The (Iraq) war can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically, and the president needs to come to that realization,

We would be somewhat foolish to work out something on stopping us from going over the cliff and then a month or six weeks later Republicans pull the same game they did before and say, 'We're not going to do anything - unless this happens, we're not going to agree to increasing the debt ceiling.' I agree with the president, it has to be a package deal.

The president is now having to deal with a Congress. He's never had to do that before. The president in the past, he has just done whatever he wanted. He had a big rubberstamp here up on Capitol Hill, whatever he wanted, they stamped OK. That's not the way it is now.

The day before the hurricane made landfall, the president of the United States received a briefing on the enormity of the storm. But when floodwaters poured into America's Gulf Coast, America's government sat on its hands.