Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Sofia Sanchez University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed Wednesday that the Senate will abstain from health care reform negotiations until newly elected Republican Senator Scott Brown (Mass.) comes to Washington.

"We are going to wait until the new Senator arrives to do anything more on health care,” said Reid. “We need to work with [Republicans] as partners and not partisans to improve the individual lives of Americans.”

Referring to the Republican party as the party of ‘no,' Reid offered his hope that 2010 will be more productive and unified.

“As we have worked to relieve the suffering of the American people, Republicans have made a political calculation not to participate, and that was evident to what took place last year,” Reid stated. “Their answer to everything has been no. Hard to comprehend, even with funding the troops.”

Reid’s message to Republicans is that the people of Massachusetts gave them a new opportunity to govern, and he hopes that the minority party will take that opportunity to govern fairly.

“The election in Massachusetts changes the math in the Senate,” said Reid. “But it does not change the fact that people are hurting, it does does not change our commitment to help those who are hurting.”