Less than a week after being elected majority leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is blaming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for all of Washington's dysfunction.
Asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether he would be willing to work with President Barack Obama as majority leader, McCarthy said he could work with just about anyone--except Reid. "I believe you can work with anybody. The challenge has been Harry Reid," McCarthy said. "There's more than 240 bills that have passed the House that haven't even been brought up inside the Senate. If you want to know the problem, the frustration with Washington, [it's] the Senate. The Senate has not moved anything, they never send something to the president's desk, so how do you even negotiate with the president if he doesn't have the bill on his desk?"
Republicans in the House have taken the brunt of the blame for obstructionism in Congress since 2010. Last year, the House dug in and refused to pass a budget until the Senate would agree to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That standoff ended in a deeply unpopular government shutdown.
In addition to blocking Senate bills, this House of Representatives is on track to propose the least amount of legislation since the Clinton administration.
But McCarthy, who was elected last week to replace Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) as House majority leader after Cantor lost his primary to a tea party challenger, said legislation would start moving if Republicans were able to take over the Senate in November.
"What is the hold up here?" he asked. "Harry Reid and the Senate. If that fundamentally changes in November, I think it'll be a new day for America and a new direction."
Before You Go
