An upbeat Harry Reid told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren in an interview aired last night that more and more people are coming around to health care reform. He also defended the Nebraska Medicaid deal that secured Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) vote in December.
“Now that the legislation passed, it is amazing how much different people attitude is. … People have changed. Even the Republicans have changed their tone,” the Senate majority leader said. “So everybody acknowledges with rare exception that what we did was terrific, and if there are some problems in out years we’ll be happy to look at them.”
Van Susteren grilled Reid on a deal he cut with Nelson giving Nebraska 100% federal reimbursement for Medicaid, and claimed the deal cost Democrats the Massachusetts Senate election. Reid defended the deal.
“Remember, the Nebraska deal was terrific for our country. Why do I say that? Because now everybody has a Nebraska deal. Every state in the union has the Nebraska deal,” he said.
“I don’t think a lot of people feel like do you, senator, on that. I think a lot of people were disturbed about the fact on the eve of the vote that two United States senators meet, and President Obama had promised transparency,” Van Susteren responded.
REID: Did you think it would have been better if I let the bill fail?
VAN SUSTEREN: I don’t —
REID: You’re speechless.
VAN SUSTEREN: Speechless? This is the way it appeared to the American people. This senator, Senator Ben Nelson, was for sale. That’s the way it looked like. It was a sale that all the other American taxpayers are paying for. And nobody understood, even people in Nebraska didn’t understand why he got this?
Reid also used the interview to take a shot at Massachusetts Attorney General, and failed Senate candidate, Martha Coakley.
VAN SUSTEREN: Coakley? I thought she ran a good campaign.
REID: Massachusetts didn’t agree.
VAN SUSTEREN: She was up 19 points on December 20th.
REID: Until she came back from her three week vacation?
And he maintained that his poll numbers, which have shown him losing to potential Republican challengers, aren’t bleak.
“We’re doing fine. The polls are fine,” he said. “I’m not going to get into a poll battle, because the only poll that matters is the one in November.”
