Reid mounted a strong defense of Obamacare. | AP Photos Reid cites race amid GOP opposition

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that it’s “obvious” that some Republicans are continuing to do “everything they can” to ensure President Barack Obama’s legislative priorities fail and said he hopes the GOP opposition isn’t based on the president’s race.

On issues like tweaking Obamacare during its implementation and passing the president’s priorities, Reid said on Nevada’s NPR affiliate that he’s still seeing the same Republican obstructionism that he saw in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.


“I hope that’s based on substance and not the fact that he’s an African-American,” Reid added.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) subsequently called on Reid to apologize for his comments. Scott, the only African-American in the Senate, said the Democrat leader was “playing to the lowest common denominator” and that Democrats are “trying to hide behind a smokescreen” and avoid talking about the president’s “failed policies.”

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“I hope Senator Reid will realize the offensive nature of his remarks and apologize to those who disagree with the President’s policies because of one thing – they are hurting hardworking American families,” Scott said.

Reid also mounted a strong defense of Obamacare and said the House of Representatives has made it impossible to legislatively tweak the law. Reid pushed back at critiques of the law by D. Taylor of UNITE HERE, who has said the law creates “perverse incentives” with its employer requirements that threaten to “destroy the foundation of the 40-hour workweek.”

“I would recommend that D. calm down. He’s exaggerating,” Reid said, asking Taylor not to “scare people.”

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As part of the list of items that may need revising in the law, Reid said he would like to take a look at union health care plans that don’t have a deductible. He wants to make sure that patients have some “skin in the game.”

“That means you can’t just be running to the doctor with no deductible,” Reid said. “We’re all going to have to look at that.”

But Reid said for now any tweaks in Obamacare are going to have to be confined to fixes through the executive branch. The leader said a group of “characters” in the House refuse to work productively on tweaking and refining the health care law and only want to repeal it.

“We have problems getting anything passed, especially if it it deals with Obamacare,” Reid said. “Until there’s a change in the House of Representatives, we won’t get it done.”

The Democratic leader also refused to rule out taking another look at Senate rules reform, for legislation or for nominees. Reid said Republicans continue to require a 60-vote threshold via the filibuster far too often and said if that trend continues, he may look at changing the rules on legislation.

Reid recently threatened to lower the vote threshold on executive nominees via the “nuclear option,” but that change was averted after a deal was struck between Democrats and Republicans to approve a slate of the president’s nominees.

“It’s been abused and if it continues to be abused I’m confident the rules will be changed,” Reid said of legislative filibuster rules. “We don’t want the House and the Senate to be exactly the same, but these characters that will filibuster everything, unless they change I think that’s where we’re headed.”