Responding to Geithner: Reid

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered support for the administration's toxic assets plan today, giving a nod to the risks involved in using taxpayer money to toxic loans and mortgage-backed securities. Reid's statement, sent out by his press office this afternoon:

The Treasury Department plan is based on the sound principle that if we are to revive our economy, we must unfreeze the credit markets so people can get the loans they need to keep their small businesses open, buy a car or send their children to college.  Like any investment, this plan carries the potential for both risk and reward.  But above all, we must act - one risk we will not take is standing on the sidelines and doing nothing while a bad situation gets worse.

Noticeably, this statement hedges against potential criticism of the risk. But it looks like the major point to be taken away from this--perhaps a point other Democrats will pick up on in discussing the plan--is something they've been saying since the stimulus: there may be risks, but we can't afford not to act.