WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s now been ten days since the government shut down and still, there’s no end in sight. Democrats won’t budge unless there’s an agreement on additional healthcare policies. Speaker Mike Johnson (R- LA) canceled votes next week in the House to apply more pressure on the Senate.
“I think we’ve lost all sense of common sense,” said Sen. Dave McCormick (R- PA). “We’re in the middle of the Schumer shutdown.”
Senator McCormick said regardless of which party is in power, it doesn’t make sense to shut down the government.
“I think it’s bad policy,” said the Senator. “It’s bad for the American people, bad for those federal workers who aren’t receiving a paycheck and service members who have put their life on the line and who aren’t going to get paid on October 15th.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D- NY) said the White House is not negotiating with Democrats to reach a deal.
“The government has been shut down for ten days,” said Rep. Jeffries. “Our men and women in uniform and hardworking federal employees are working without pay. Donald Trump can find the time to play golf, but he can’t be bothered negotiating a bipartisan agreement to reopen the government and address the healthcare crisis that they’ve created.”
There’s been some talk on the Hill about Speaker Johnson bringing back the House in session to pass a standalone bill to pay for service members, but going into next week, the Speaker canceled votes in the House. Johnson hopes to use this as pressure on Senate Democrats to pass the short-term continuing resolution.
We asked Representative Jack Bergman (R- MI) about the blame game being played in Washington.
“Well, was the arguing in middle school constructive,” asked the Congressman. “It was hormonally driven when you were 14 years-old. Unfortunately, some of that middle school-like activity is occurring right now and not to be Democrat versus Republican, but Republicans in the House did our job to pass a clean CR and a clean continuing resolution.”
Rep. Bergman adds that the ball is now in the Senate’s court to pass the CR.
