Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., criticized the House of Representatives for staying in their districts and not returning to Washington, D.C. to work on a deal that averts the fiscal cliff Thursday morning.
“They [the house] should be here right now,” Blumenthal said on Jansing & Co. “We’re all here in the Senate, why isn’t the house here?”
The president returned to Washington, D.C. Thursday and the Senate was in session in the morning, but House members have not been called back to work yet. Speaker Boehner has insisted the ball is in the Senate’s court and it needs to act first.
“Where the end game here is, the short term, avoiding the fiscal cliff, everybody agrees has to happen. Let’s put aside the brinksmanship and the gamesmanship that seems to prevail in the House of Representatives and give the house a vote,” Blumenthal said.
Senator Harry Reid said on the Senate floor Thursday that he didn’t believe the chamber had enough time to come up with a deal. In response, a Boehner spokesman accused the Senate of stalling. “Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more,” the spokesman said in a statement. “The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not.”
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