Reid: 'This is Historic'

Politico reports:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took a victory lap on the floor late Friday night, following the announcement of a spending deal that averted a government shutdown with just minutes to spare.

“This is historic, what we’ve done, ” Reid said, accompanied by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “It has not been an easy process. Both sides have had to make tough choices. But tough choices is what this job’s all about.”

Reid, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Barack Obama effectively shook hands on two deals Friday: a long-term spending bill that slashes $38.5 billion from current levels and a temporary 6-day stopgap measure that cuts $2 billion of that total as congressional negotiators dot their “i”s and cross their “t”s.

Had they not reached an agreement, the government would have shutdown for the first time since 1995.

“We had an opportunity tonight to decide whether we wanted to repeat history or make history,” McConnell said. “Had we chosen to repeat history, we would have allowed a government shutdown. Instead, we decided to make history by implementing in the middle of this fiscal year, as the majority leader indicated, substantial reductions in spending.”

The majority leader, who met with Boehner and Obama multiple times in the days and hours leading up to the midnight deadline, expressed gratitude to Boehner, McConnell — with whom he said he has “a terrific relationship” — and the staffers who worked round-the-clock to avert a shutdown that would have affected 800,000 federal workers.