Rubio-Coons AGREE Act: Obama’s nightmare?

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - On its face, the bill crafted by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Coons (D-DE) looks modest enough. The aptly-named AGREE (American Growth, Recovery, Empowerment, and Entrepreneurship) Act takes parts of job-growth proposals from both sides of the aisle with wide bipartisan support and rolls them into one proposal. The two eliminated those components that create controversy, so that this Congress can act at least incrementally to improve the economic climate for job creators while larger reform efforts collide on Capitol Hill.

The incremental approach on policy actually 'is' modest, if also effective and impactful. But the effect of the AGREE Act on larger political strategies is anything 'but' modest. Rubio and Coons have basically challenged Harry Reid to get something accomplished — and that runs headlong into Barack Obama’s election strategy. In my column for The Fiscal Times, I write that the entire notion of a do-nothing Congress is Obama’s best re-election argument. Will Reid accept bipartisan progress, or defend Obama’s re-election strategy?