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On Tuesday’s broadcast of “NewsNation Now,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) stated that this government shutdown is different from some prior ones and “we are not trying to blackmail them over the CR.” And Democrats “wanted to force the Republicans to deal with” health care. Smith said, “[T]his is totally different than those other two times. This is a massive expansion, again, of power from the president. This president has done something no other president has done, and that is simply decide to cut off spending that has already been authorized and very publicly say that he’s targeting it to punish his political enemies and not even make a policy argument about it. He’s canceling [transportation] projects, he’s canceling energy projects, he’s canceling research grants, and then coming out and saying, well, that’s what the Democrats get, they lost, okay. That is his approach to the appropriations process. So, we are not trying to blackmail them over the CR. We’re trying to get an appropriations process that is legal and not completely partisan, and that goes beyond whatever the short-term fight. So, that’s point number one.” He continued, “Point number two, the healthcare part of this does matter. We had a crisis coming in November, and that crisis is now going to hit. Millions of people are going to lose their health insurance, millions more are going to see their price of their health insurance go up. We wanted to force the Republicans to deal with that. Now, they’ve made it very clear that they don’t care, and, in fact, that they’re focused on [inflicting] the maximum amount of pain. Normally, during shutdowns, we’re in session, trying to minimize the pain. But Speaker Johnson (R-LA), and now I heard the Majority Leader Thune (R-SD) have said, nah, the more this hurts, the better. So, that’s very troubling. But, yes, at the end of it, we may have to reach some sort of an agreement, but the Republicans ignoring the needs of the American people should not go un-noted.” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
