Searchlight, Senator Harry Reid, NAFTA Super Highways

Lou Dobbs would have loved to have been in Los Angeles Last Night. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid discussed his autobiography The Good Fight: Hard Lessons From Searchlight to Washington with filmmaker and activist Rob Reiner. At a Town Hall meeting in Los Angeles Senator Harry Reid spoke to an audience inside of the James Bridges Theater which is on the campus of UCLA. Since it’s not that often that I have a chance to meet a Senator of the United States, let alone the Senate Majority Leader, there was a pen and a notebook in my pocket at the ready. There I learned about a story of courage behind Sen. Reid and I felt very thankful to Mr. Reiner for hosting the event.

Searchlight is the name of the little town Senator Reid was raised in Nevada, which was a town in need of investment when he was a child but a town never impoverished of heart and soul. Placed at a crossroad, this little desert town of Searchlight Nevada is out between Lake Mohave and the Mojave National Preserve. It may not be much of a town to many but it’s where the Senator earned his Red Badge of Courage. It was what Sen. Reid had to say about NAFTA that, had Mr. Dobbs been there, would have caused his ears to perk up. Beside speaking about his past (a story from rags to power) Senator Reid also gave us a good look into his current Washington battles.


One thing I learned was that in regards to healthcare Sen. Reid feels that “had Americans gone with the plan that Hillary Clinton proposed years ago, Americans would be much better off today.“ It’s nice to hear this a few days before the Rules and Bylaws committee meets on Saturday May 31st . Another interesting thing I learned was that Senator Reid says that there are “no plans for a NAFTA super Highway.” I asked Sen. Reid if “there exists any plan to build a NAFTA Super Highway, yes or no?“ Senator Ried said he was against such trade agrements. When I was unsure of his response I followed through by asking “…what about a highway similar to a super highway or called by another name, in some other project?” and he said “no.” So, Mr. Dobbs if you have any other way of asking this question in any more of a straight forward way, I would really like to know. The Senator made it clear that there is no plan to build a highway that connects the Mexican border with Canada and that will carry goods efficiently from one trade partner to the other. There is no plan to slowly build a series of highways that will eventually connect in some form or another to form a “NAFTA Super Highway” by default. At least that’s what Senator Harry Reid said Last night.

Rafael Buelna