The Democrats have been taking huge heat all day over their reckless, stupid shutdown. Amazingly, even the New York Times and the AP ran headlines saying that the Dems caused the shutdown by blocking the funding bill last night. Well, a short time ago, the Dems proposed a cop-out bill to fund only the military during the shutdown. Mitch McConnell rightly shut down that attempt to duck consequences. If the Dems really cared about funding the military, why did they block the funding bill last night? And why didn't they introduce this bill last night? Why didn't they suggest only funding the military last night while they were busy blocking the funding bill?
And, hey, Dems, what about all the other federal employees who are now gonna go without pay because of your obsession with giving amnesty to illegal aliens? How about our DHS agents on the border? How about all our support personnel in intelligence agencies who are not designated as "essential" but who play important roles nonetheless? How about all the thousands of federal contractors who provide crucial support to intelligence operations but who do not qualify as "essential" personnel and thus can't get paid? How about all the IRS workers who should be processing early tax returns? How about all the HUD workers who should be helping low-income people? Why don't you fund them too?
Thank heavens the Republicans control the Senate and forced the Democrats to vote on the funding bill. Recall that the Democrats blocked a vote on Thursday, after the GOP-controlled House passed a funding bill, but the Dems didn't dare prevent the Senate from voting on the bill on Friday. And when the vote happened, 44 of 49 Democrats voted against the bill, and in so doing shut down the government, while 45 of 50 Republicans voted for the bill (McCain was unavailable to vote). If Schumer had not insisted on a filibuster, the funding bill would have passed 51-49 because Vice President Pence would have cast the 51st vote. And we would not be having this discussion.
And, hey, Dems, what about all the other federal employees who are now gonna go without pay because of your obsession with giving amnesty to illegal aliens? How about our DHS agents on the border? How about all our support personnel in intelligence agencies who are not designated as "essential" but who play important roles nonetheless? How about all the thousands of federal contractors who provide crucial support to intelligence operations but who do not qualify as "essential" personnel and thus can't get paid? How about all the IRS workers who should be processing early tax returns? How about all the HUD workers who should be helping low-income people? Why don't you fund them too?
Thank heavens the Republicans control the Senate and forced the Democrats to vote on the funding bill. Recall that the Democrats blocked a vote on Thursday, after the GOP-controlled House passed a funding bill, but the Dems didn't dare prevent the Senate from voting on the bill on Friday. And when the vote happened, 44 of 49 Democrats voted against the bill, and in so doing shut down the government, while 45 of 50 Republicans voted for the bill (McCain was unavailable to vote). If Schumer had not insisted on a filibuster, the funding bill would have passed 51-49 because Vice President Pence would have cast the 51st vote. And we would not be having this discussion.
